Bamboo can be main pillar of medicinal, paper industries: Jitendra Singh

Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Thursday that bamboo can be the main pillar of ecological, medicinal, paper and building sectors in India and it can become one of the important components of the country's post-COVID-19 economy.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Thursday that bamboo can be the main pillar of ecological, medicinal, paper and building sectors in India and it can become one of the important components of the country's post-COVID-19 economy. Chairing a review meeting of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Singh urged the Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre (CBTC) to explore setting up of vocational training and skill development centres for the bamboo sector for its full exploitation, branding, packaging and marketing in India and abroad.

Bamboo can be the main pillar of ecological, medicinal, paper and building sectors in India, he said. The minister for DoNER said that CBTC, in coordination with National Bamboo Mission, will work in this direction to boost the bamboo economy in the northeastern region.

The skill centres will propel the bamboo industry with new start-ups and also enhance livelihood opportunities, he said. Singh said the bamboo sector will be one of the important components of India's post-COVID economy and a vital pillar of the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan' (self-reliant campaingn) in the northeastern region.

Underlining the unexpected potentials of this sector and "being neglected for the last 70 years", he said the present government has the capacity and the will to unlock its potential to the highest level as 40 per cent of all bamboo resources lie in northeastern region in the country. Welcoming the central government's decisions to ban import of finished products and raising the import duty by 25 per cent on raw bamboo items, Singh said the measures will help the domestic bamboo industries, including incense stick-making, in a big way.

He was also apprised about a letter written by the Union agriculture minister to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to promote bamboo in a large measure in housing projects in the northeastern region. The minister said 10 commercially important species of bamboo have been identified and the states will take up plantation of these new species on a large scale.

Moreover, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram have been found suitable for Moso Bamboo cultivation widely used in incense stick industry. Singh also directed the North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited, (Nedfi) to undertake a comprehensive bamboo study in coordination with other stakeholders and identify project profiles at the earliest.