Experiments by the Council for Industrial and Scientific Research (CSIR) to cultivate asafoetida (heeng) have borne fruit, with the plant flowering in India for the first time. The project was launched in Lahaul and Spiti region of Himachal Pradesh by CSIR's Palampur-based Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, in 2020, and a Heeng Seed Production Centre had been established in February.