India is playing a crucial role in development of neem
as pesticide in agriculture and pest control industry.
Neem in India is used for many purposes
Veterinary medicine
Unani medicine
Cosmetics
Malaria control
- public health
CROP PROTECTION AGENT
Nitrogen efficiency
Agro-forestry
Silviculture
Ayurvedic medicine
Ancient medicine
Agriculture
Modren medicine
Antifertility and other medical application
NEEM AS A SACRED TREE
Hindus venerate neem and use neem oil of it in religious ceremonies. In certain regions of
India people eat a few neem leaves with gur or jaggery (a non-crystalline solid mass of
sugar) on the New Year’s day symbolically to accept with grace both bitter and sweet
experiences. They also bathe in water boiled with neem leaves to ward off illnesses. It is
believed that a few drops of heavenly nectar had fallen on neem and therefore, it attained
curative properties. Sri Chaitanya, the famed saint of the Vaishnava cult, was familiarly called
‘Nimai’ as he was presumed to be born under a neem tree.
In a festival called ‘ghatasthapana’ which is
well-known in many parts of India, villagers
collect together and install a pot filled with
water, five branches of neem and a coconut.
This pot is covered with flowers and
worshipped to avert ill luck. Sacrifices are
also made before the pot. The Gamits of
Gujarat celebrate a festival known as
Nandarvo in which the juice of neem tree is
first offered to god and then to cattle and
people as prasad (offering). It is customary
among certain communities to chew neem
leaves and spit them out as a token of
deliverance from grief while returning from a
funeral. Hindus worship neem and pipal and
occasionally perform a marriage between the
two.
The neem is reported to be associated with the constellation Uttara Bhadrapada, whose
presiding deity is Abibudhanya.