Surinder Singh Nagra

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A farmer, who started medicinal plants’ farming as his hobby and now has become a Doctor

Surinder Singh Nagra is a resident of Village Kohala of Jalandhar District, Punjab and now-a-days, he is running a medicinal nursery at Kartarpur Sahib. Mr. Nagra has made his popularity among people by cultivating different varieties of medicinal plants.

Surinder Singh is singleton of Pehlwan Nasib Singh and Ramesh Kaur. Besides doing farming, Mr. Nasib Singh used to carry goods from aadtiya and unload it at Jalandhar on the cart from where he got the financial support for family. Due to financial hardship at home, Surinder Singh started driving a taxi for offering a helping hand to his father at the age of 18. When family conditions were getting propitious, he got married. But due to some issues with his wife, he got divorced. After a while, he again got married to Nashatar Kaur. He began working as a supervisor on a liquor shop in order to fulfil his family responsibilities more effectively. But after a while, he realised that the liquor trade is a crime and so Mr. Nagra left this job. Meanwhile, sudden dismiss of his father was a great mislaying for him, as the burden of whole family was now on his shoulders. For the sake of his family, he inaugurated a fertilizer and chemical shop. But there also, he faced a great loss because of thievery at his shop.

Because of theft at my shop, everyone was woeing, but I smiled and said, it was earning of my sins which went out, so everything happens for our good – Surinder Singh Nagra.

After this loss, he started working as an agent (aadtiya) and side by side, he also started transportation work. The thing of concern is that, he never charged any sort of interest to the farmers, instead he provided money to the farmers. This was somehow benefiting the farmers but greatly effecting the finances of Surinder Singh. Considering these things, he focused on the transportation business and due to his hard work in this, he owned 4-5 luggage carries at the end.

Besides the family responsibilities, he have a unique interest which made him popular amongst people. From the very young age, he was fond of learning about medicinal plants and spend most of his time in the same.

Interest of learning about medicinal plants arose from my fast friend Shiv Kumar, who is now working as Kanungo at Jalandhar – Surinder Singh Nagra

When the life was coming on its track, at the eleventh hour, a mishappening occurred due to which he lost his one leg. The moment his friend Shiv Kumar got to know about this misery, he straightway went to meet him. Shiv Kumar was diabetic and at that time, he had blisters and ulcers but still he came to see his friend. He gave him Rs 10,000 and a watch as token of love.

Due to diabetes, Shiv Kumar had a horrible death, which shivered my inner soul. For that reason, I decided to do something in favour of society so that people need not face such a painful situations – Surinder Singh Nagra

Afterwards, he started illuminating himself about medicinal plants with more conscious mind. For this purpose, he went to the hills of Kerala, along with his son so that he couldn’t face any sort of problem in language which is not native to him. For completion of this work, all his luggage carriers were sold. Bank officials started insulting him as he was unable to pay the bank loan which he took for initiating a shop business.

Then I came to know about joining of a new manager in Bank. I met him and told about my state of affairs. He helped me as a noble person and gave me sanction for loan of 12-13 lacs to pay off my earlier loan- Surinder Singh Nagra

Getting liberty from this, he planted stevia plant, which he bought from Palampur. After this, he started planting more medicinal plants. His kids helped him a lot in this business.

Gradually he started making medicines from the medicinal plants, which benefited a lot to the patients. He feels glad for having success in such a business. This is handled by his daughter Ms Gurdeep Kaur. Younger son of Mr. Nagra is running business of dairy farming. He make products from milk and sell them in the market. Every member of the family is serving their potential in making powder from medicinal plants and taking care of it.

Medicinal herbs grown by Nagra:
  • Isoline
  • Stevia
  • Swajna
  • Small cardamom
  • Large cardamom
  • Brahmi
  • Bankshap
  • Bamboo
  • Camphor
  • Arjun
  • Tez patta
  • Magh
  • Geranium
  • Hadd jod buti
  • Sada Bahar
  • Ashwagandha
  • Satawar
  • Ajwain
  • Odomas
  • Sita Ashoka
  • White sandalwood
  • Rudraksh
  • Putranjeeva
  • Garlic vine
  • Camphor basil
  • Rose Marie
  • Indian snake-root
  • Mount Atlas Daisy
  • Night-flowering jasmine
We also provide free medicines to patients who cannot afford medicines. – Surinder Singh Nagra

Due to his efforts in this stream, many a times he has been honoured by Shromani Vaidya Committee and he has built a good relationships with ATMA. Now, he along with Central Government is working on projects for enlightening people about the medicinal plants.

Future plans

Surinder Singh wants this business of medicine to be handled by his saplings as well as the treatment and help of people should go on the same track.


Message
“Youngsters should get knowledge about the medicinal plants so that every home should have one doctor and people need not to pay heavy pockets to the doctors for medicines. It is belief of Mr. Nagra that no one else is a better doctor then a farmer. For that reason farmers should step up towards organic farming.”