Greening India by planting bamboo

Greening India by planting bamboo

News:

1. The World Bamboo Day is celebrated to create awareness about the importance of bamboo as a versatile material for sustainable lifestyle.

Important Facts:

2. The theme of World Bamboo Day 2018 is:” Bamboo as a tool for achieving economic and social sustainability”.
3. Advantages of Bamboo

• Livelihood opportunity: Provide rural livelihood in many countries, especially in developing countries like India and is also called ‘poor man’s timber’.
• Agro-forestry:It can become part of agroforestry practice in small land holdings.
• As wood substitute: New bamboo plantations may curb the pressure from deforestation by serving as wood substitutes.
• Re-claiming wastelands: It can be planted to reclaim severely degraded sites and wastelands.
• Soil-binding agent: It is good soil binder due to its fibrous root system and hence also plays an important role in soil and water conservation.
• Sequester carbon dioxide:It is the fastest growing canopy, releasing 35 per cent more oxygen than trees and can sequester 12 tonnes of carbon dioxide from per hectare.
• Miscellaneous uses: Its tender shoots are used as delicacy food item and is also used in house construction, flooring, agricultural implements etc.

4. Bamboo in India

• Area under bamboo:Bamboo is grown on 10 million hectares in India and covers almost 13 percent of the total forest area. Madhya Pradesh has the largest area under bamboo forests but bamboo culture thrives in the North Eastern region.
• Bamboo diversity:India is second only to China in terms of bamboo diversity. The North-Eastern States are a storehouse of bamboo diversity, home to 58 bamboo varieties.
• Bamboo production: The total production of bamboo is five million tonnes per year. About 8.6 million people depend on bamboo for their livelihood. The value of bamboo in India is estimated at $4.4 billion.
• Dependence on bamboo: About 8.6 million people depend on bamboo for their livelihood.
• Earlier legislations: Though India launched the National Bamboo Mission in 2007, it has failed to address the enormity of the issues related to bamboo. So government allocated $200 million in the 2018 Budget to provide new impetus to the bamboo sector, with huge support to the North-Eastern States.
• Government also relaxed the restrictions on harvesting, transit and trade of bamboo to boost the bamboo economy across the country in 2017.

5. China’s bamboo success story

• The headquarters of International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation (INBAR) is located in China.
• About INBAR: It is a multilateral development organisation which promotes environmentally sustainable development using bamboo and rattan. It has made achievements in areas such as: raising standards; promoting safe, resilient bamboo construction; restoring degraded land; capacity-building; and informing green policy and sustainable development objectives.

6. Way forward for India

• Following the footsteps of China, India needs to support farmers to establish bamboo plantations in barren slopes.
• Bamboo should be used to rebuild green economy to achieve the goals of sustainable social and economic development, especially of the weaker sections of society who are engaged in bamboo resources.