Ordinance amends forest law to boost bamboo trade

NEW DELHI: The President on Thursday cleared an ordinance amending the Indian Forest Act, 1927, to exempt bamboo extracted from non-forest land from the felling and transit permit — a move that experts believe will encourage industrial use.

There has been a long-standing demand to remove bamboo from the list of trees, because scientifically it is a grass, and also a resource that forest-dependent communities heavily rely on.

Inclusion in the Forest Act as a tree means extracting bamboo and its trade is heavily regulated.

“For industrial use, bamboo is great; for forest-dependent communities, it is not so,” Parth Shah, founder-president of Centre for Civil Society, a Delhi- based policy think tank, which has been advocating for removing regulations on the extraction of bamboo from both forest and non-forest lands. “It is very important the forest bamboo be freed up, too.”

The total forest and tree cover is 24.16% of India’s geographical area with majority of it covered by bamboo plantations.

The move will encourage private plantation and trade in bamboo. Despite being one of the most bamboo-rich countries, India does not have a substantial industry based on it. China, which has the largest stock, doesn’t just have a vibrant bamboo-based industry but has captured the export market for bamboo products over the years as well.

At present, bamboo felled in forest lands is governed by Forest Conservation Act, which will continue to be the case.

Under the Act, the forest-dependent communities can access bamboo as a non-forest produce. They cannot use it for commercial trading purposes.

The exemption will contribute to achieving the goal of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, according to government sources.

The government does not seem to be inclined to make extraction from forest land exempt from felling and transit permit, too.

The non-exemption will “provide the desired equilibrium for enhancing farmers’ income on the one hand and protecting the environment by maintaining the area under the forests on the other hand,” the sources added.

BAMBOO EXTRACTED FROM NONFOREST LAND WILL BE EXEMPT FROM THE FELLING AND TRANSIT PERMIT