{"id":12575,"date":"2017-11-24T16:27:05","date_gmt":"2017-11-24T10:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=12575"},"modified":"2017-11-24T16:27:05","modified_gmt":"2017-11-24T10:57:05","slug":"bamboo-not-a-tree-any-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/bamboo-not-a-tree-any-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Bamboo not a \u2018tree\u2019 any more"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Context:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a landmark initiative, Centre has promulgated the <strong>Indian Forest (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017<\/strong> to exempt bamboo grown in non-forest areas from definition of tree, thereby dispensing with the requirement of felling\/transit permit for its economic use.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Introduction:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>After President Ramnath Kovind signed an ordinance amending the Forest Act, the Bamboo has ceased to be a tree anymore.<\/li>\n<li>For 90 years Bamboo-taxonomically a grass-was registered as a tree in the Forest Act, but he recent amendment has axed bamboo from a list of plants that also included palms, skumps, brush-wood and canes.<\/li>\n<li>The government \u00a0hoped to promote cultivation of bamboo in non-forest areas to achieve the \u201ctwin objectives\u201d of <strong>increasing the income of farmers<\/strong> and also <strong>increasing the green cover of the country.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Bamboo grown in the forest areas would continue to be governed by the provisions of the Indian Forest Act.<\/li>\n<li>Before the ordinance was issued, the definition of tree in the law included palm, bamboo, brushwood and cane.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Objectives of decision:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The ordinance, aimed at increasing bamboo plantation, states that clause seven in Section 2 of the act would omit the word bamboo.<\/li>\n<li>The amendment will help in addressing some of these issues, besides meeting the demand from domestic production.<\/li>\n<li>Before this amendment, cutting and transport of bamboo grown in forest as well as non-forest land was illegal.<\/li>\n<li>The Centre said it hopes to promote cultivation of bamboo in non-forest areas to help raise <strong>the income of farmers and increase the green cover.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>This was a major impediment for bamboo cultivation by farmers on non-forest land. The move will contribute to achieving the objective of doubling farmers&#8217; income by 2022.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Conservation and Sustainable development.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Enhance supply of raw material to the traditional craftsmen of rural India.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>An enabling environment for the cultivation of bamboo <strong>will help in creation of<\/strong> <strong>job opportunities in the country.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The amendment <strong>will unleash the potential of bamboo in terms of rural and national economy.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>To <strong>promote cultivation of bamboo in non-forest areas<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The amendment <strong>will encourage farmers and other individuals to take up plantation\/ block plantation of suitable bamboo species on degraded land, in addition to plantation on agricultural land and other private lands under agro forestry mission.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Expected benefits the amendment:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Some of the other benefits of amendment include:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Enhancing <strong>supply of<\/strong> <strong>raw material to the traditional craftsmen of rural India,<\/strong> bamboo based or paper and pulp industries, cottage industries, furniture making units, fabric making units, incense stick making units.<\/li>\n<li>Promoting major bamboo applications such as <strong>wood substitutes and composites like panels, flooring, furniture and bamboo blind.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It shall also help industries such as those dealing with food products (bamboo shoots), constructions and housing, bamboo charcoal etc.<\/li>\n<li>The amendment will greatly aid the success of recently constituted <strong>National Bamboo Mission.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The amendment will unleash the potential of bamboo in terms of rural and national economy apart from ecological benefits such as <strong>soil-moisture conservation, landslide prevention and rehabilitation, conserving wildlife<\/strong> <strong>habitat, enhancing source of bio-mass, besides serving as a substitute for timber.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>An enabling environment for the cultivation of bamboo will help in creation of <strong>job opportunities in the country.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The amendment will therefore, help in harnessing this great potential and enhance the scope to <strong>increase the present level of market share<\/strong> <strong>and improve the economy of the entire country, particularly the North Eastern region.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>encourage growth of small and medium industries in the villages and smaller towns also, and <strong>reduce our dependence on imports<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Need of enhancing Bamboo sector:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The current demand of bamboo in India is estimated at <strong>28 million tonnes. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Though the country has 19% share of the world\u2019s area under bamboo cultivation, its market share in the sector is only 6%.<\/li>\n<li>At present, <strong>it imports timber and allied products, such as pulp, paper, and furniture.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>In 2015, it imported about 18.01 million cubic metres of timber and allied products worth \u20b943,000 crore.<\/li>\n<li>Bamboo grows abundantly in areas outside forests with an estimated growing stock of 10.20 million tonnes and about 20 million people are involved in bamboo related activities.<\/li>\n<li>The amendment will help in addressing some of these issues, besides meeting the demand from domestic production.<\/li>\n<li>As per the assessment <strong>of United Nation\u2019s Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO),<\/strong> the bamboo business in the North-East Region alone has a potential of about Rs. 5000 crores in the next ten years.<\/li>\n<li><strong>India has the largest area under bamboo cultivation and is the second richest in terms of bamboo genetic resources after China.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Challenges faced by global bamboo market:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>India\u2019s massive potential was not utilised all these years to increase the country\u2019s share in the global bamboo market.<\/li>\n<li>Restrictive regulatory regime<\/li>\n<li>Requirement of permission for felling<\/li>\n<li>Transit and processing<\/li>\n<li>Export restrictions<\/li>\n<li>Royalty and transit fee on the products<\/li>\n<li>As a result, India is currently importing timber and allied products such as pulp, paper and furniture, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Indian Forest (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The government, in a landmark initiative, has promulgated the Indian Forest (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017\u00a0to exempt bamboo grown in non-forest areas from definition of tree, thereby dispensing with the requirement of felling or transit permit for its economic use.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Indian Forest Act, 1927:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is an act to consolidate the law relating to forest, the transit of forest-produce and the duty leviable on timber and other forest-produce.<\/li>\n<li>The Indian Forest Act, 1927 was based on previous Indian Forest Acts implemented under the British.<\/li>\n<li>The most famous one was the Indian Forest Act of 1878.<\/li>\n<li>It sought to consolidate and reserve the areas having forest cover, or significant wildlife, to regulate movement and transit of\u00a0 forest produce, and duty leviable on\u00a0 timber\u00a0and other forest produce.<\/li>\n<li>It also defines the procedure to be followed for declaring an area to be a Reserved Forest, a Protected Forest or a Village Forest.<\/li>\n<li>It defines what is a forest offence, what are the acts prohibited inside a Reserved Forest, and penalties leviable on violation of the provisions of the Act.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Reserved Forest:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reserved Forest is an area mass of land duly notified under the provisions of Indian Forest Act or the State Forest Acts having full degree of protection.<\/li>\n<li>In Reserved Forests all activities are prohibited unless permitted.<\/li>\n<li>Reserved Forest is notified under section 20 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>National Bamboo Mission:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The National Bamboo Mission was launched in 2006-07 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme to promote the growth of bamboo sector. The programmes address four major areas of bamboo development as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Research and Development<\/li>\n<li>Plantation Development<\/li>\n<li>Handicrafts Development<\/li>\n<li>Marketing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Key Elements of the National Bamboo Mission:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Research and Development for sustainable development and new Bamboo Agri-forestry technique for technology generation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><u>Establishment of new Nurseries\u00a0<\/u><\/strong>to raise bamboo seedlings<\/li>\n<li>Raising high yielding bamboo plantations on commercial basis in\u00a0<strong><u>Forest as well as Non-Forest areas<\/u><\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Rejuvenation of senile bamboo plantations<\/li>\n<li><strong><u>Pest and Disease Management<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0of bamboo.<\/li>\n<li><strong><u>Handicrafts, bamboo marketing<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0and exports<\/li>\n<li>Capacity building and Human Resource Development of farmers, field functionaries and others<\/li>\n<li>New Marketing Strategy for Bamboo and establishment of Bamboo Markets, Bamboo bazaar and retail outlets<\/li>\n<li>Meticulous monitoring, evaluation and reporting, Database generation, compilation and analysis<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Conclusion:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The amendment and the resultant change in classification of bamboo grown in non-forest areas will usher in much needed and far-reaching reforms in the bamboo sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: In a landmark initiative, Centre has promulgated the Indian Forest (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017 to exempt bamboo grown in non-forest areas from definition of tree, thereby dispensing with the requirement of felling\/transit permit for its economic use. Introduction: After President Ramnath Kovind signed an ordinance amending the Forest Act, the Bamboo has ceased to be&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/bamboo-not-a-tree-any-more\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Bamboo not a \u2018tree\u2019 any more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":12576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-editorials","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/bamboo-tree.jpg?fit=1000%2C525&ssl=1","views":{"total":925,"cached_at":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}