Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Sept 27: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today called for a “green gold” revolution through promotion and trade of bamboo which, he said, had a vast unexplored potential to bring about a quantum jump in the economic growth of Northeast in particular and whole of India in general.
Delivering the inaugural address at the two-day seminar on “Bamboo Development for North Eastern Region”, Dr Jitendra Singh disclosed that approximately 8.96 million hectare of forest area of this country is covered by bamboo and Northeast is the home for over 60% of India’s bamboo reserves. The expression “green gold” has been coined to refer to bamboo because it is a miracle plant which is often placed in the category of grass product rather than forest product and matures faster than its other peers.
With an increased emphasis on Northeast under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Ministry of DoNER has placed a special focus to explore the diverse avenues of bamboo resources for generating revenue, employment and economic upliftment. He said, bamboo finds its utility in diverse ways in the manufacture of furniture, paper and handicraft, besides its utility in building construction particularly in the earthquake seismic zones like Northeast, he added.
If pursued as a mission, Dr Jitendra Singh said, statistical projections indicate that by the year 2017, bamboo sector has the ability to create 8 million jobs and lift 5 million families above the poverty line.
On behalf of the Ministry of DoNER, Dr Jitendra Singh offered Venture Fund for those of young entrepreneurs who would wish to try their fortune in bamboo industry in Northeast and this will be an additional incentive besides the other provisions available through the Government of India’s Startup initiative. He said, this experiment has already been tried with success to promote organic farming in the region. He also called for creating conditions to attract private players and boost the bamboo industry through PPP (Public Private Partnership) model.
In the exclusive ‘Brahmaputra Study Center’ proposed by him for the University of Guwahati, Dr Jitendra Singh announced that a provision will also be made to set up a “Bamboo Cell” devoted to research and innovation by way of new techniques like cloning, hybrid, etc. to have better and faster quality of bamboo products.
Among those who were present on the occasion were Forest Ministers and Forest Secretaries of the eight States from North Eastern region, Member Niti Aayog Prof. Ramesh Chand, Secretary DoNER Naveen Verma and bamboo expert Sanjay Ganjoo.
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