Mumbai: Yoga guru Baba Ramdev met state Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar and expressed his interest in using produce from Maharashtra's forests for his Ayurveda company.

Ramdev assured that he would source honey, amla, aloe vera, giloh plant and other products from the forest department and his initiative will help the tribal communities accorded the forest areas.

The Patanjali group, founded by Ramdev in 2006, and the state forest department will soon sign an MoU by which the department will get a fixed amount for the forest produce, Mungantiwar said at the meeting.

The yoga guru estimated that there could a minimum annual turnover of around Rs240 crore from the sale of forest produce, benefitting the tribals living in forests across the state.

Forest department officials will now hold another meeting in Haridwar with Patanjali officials to finalise the deal.

Mungantiwar said the state government has launched the Shyamaprasad Mukherji Janvan Yojana under which the Joint Forest Management Committee provides a wider selling platform to ayurvedic medicines.

Besides, Ramdev sought support for his group's plans to plant two crore saplings on July 3 this year with the help of 300,000 volunteers.

He also announced plans to construct a huge Food Park in Nagpur, on the lines of the Patanjali Food Park in Haridwar. (IANS)