The Maharashtra government has allotted 600 acres of land for Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Yogpeeth for its ayurvedic products unit and an orange processing plant.

Yoga guru Ramdev had earlier expressed interest in using the produce from Maharashtra's forests for his ayurveda company.

The Patanjali group, founded by Ramdev in 2006, on February 19 signed an MoU with the Maharashtra government for 200 acres of land in Katol, Nagpur district for an orange processing plant and 450 acres of land in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the MIHAN region for ayurvedic products unit.

The units are slated to promote development of the tribal communities and generate employment as the company will provide a broader market to medicines prepared by processing the forest produce. Ramdev has assured that the company will source honey, amla, aloe vera, giloh plant and other products, which are mostly collected by the tribal communities, from the forest department.

The yoga guru estimated that there could a minimum annual turnover of around Rs.240 crore from the sale of forest produce, benefitting the tribals living in forests across the state.

Ramdev said that there are also plans to construct a huge food park in Nagpur, on the lines of the Patanjali Food Park in Haridwar.

Patanjali Ayurved, has grown by leaps and bounds in the recent years clocking 64 per cent growth in sales to Rs 731 crore, in the six months ended December 31, 2015, according to IMRB data. The revival of inclination for ayurvedic products amongst the Indian households has also boosted sales of other Indian herbal product companies like Dabur and Himalaya. Patanjali's rival ayurvedic firms witnessed double digit growth in December quarter, according to IMRB data, snatching the market share from global MNCs.