Tree tag to bamboo affecting its potential

​Hyderabad: Two to three truckloads of bamboo mats reach Hyderabad every day from Assam.

The same can be brought at half the price from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh but thanks to archaic laws, cumbersome regulations and the stronghold of the Forest department, people in the bamboo sector are left in the lurch for no fault of theirs.

Malakunta, next to Exhibition Society, is a beehive of activity as traders and petty businessmen involved in the bamboo sector make their way to the dingy lane but everyone has one complaint:
Why should we get bamboo from Assam and other north-eastern states when we have enough bamboo available in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Bhadrachalam, Khammam and Adilabad have enough bamboo to meet the needs.

The culprit is the Indian Forest Act 1927 which classifies bamboo as a tree contrary to the scientific classification of bamboo as a grass.

The Forest Rights Act restricts the development of bamboo industry by attempting to vest the right to trade in bamboo with tribals.

Rambhai, a businessman near Malakunta says, “We can save at least 30% if we were allowed to get bamboo from Bhadrachalam, Sirsanapaali and other places in both Telangana and AP. But the law in both the states is too complex.”

“The Forest department does not want to lose control over bamboo as they decide the price and sell it to paper industry,” he says.

Mahaveer Singh, a businessman who sells agarbathis, says, “The 3,500 crore agarbathi industry in the country imports 70% of its raw material demand of bamboo from Vietnam and China.

If only we could change the definition of bamboo and give it its rightful place as a grass, lakhs of people would get employment.”

For a country with so much of manpower available, we are unable to even make incense sticks and import it, rues Mahaveer.

Prashant Lingam of Bamboo House India says, “Post bifurcation of the state, getting bamboo from AP has become difficult. We have to pay 2% tax and no transporter wants to touch bamboo.

With no other option we are getting the produce from the North East.’

Bamboo has 1,500 uses but it has for some strange reason become synonymous with handicrafts. Unless there is no value addition and industry does not go in for scaffolding there is no hope for the sector, says Prashant.

“China has made a wind turbine with bamboo, Boeing is making an aircraft wing with bamboo and we are still making baskets,” he says.