The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has launched the unique Project Bamboo Oasis on Lands in Drought (BOLD) in Rajasthan.

Project BOLD

• Project BOLD seeks to create bamboo-based green patches in arid and semi-arid land zones.
• It is a unique scientific exercise serving the combined national objectives of reducing desertification and providing livelihood and multi-disciplinary rural industry support.
• 5000 saplings of special bamboo species: Bambusa-Tulda and Bambusa-Polymorpha specially brought from Assam – have been planted over 25 bigha (16 acres approx) of vacant arid Gram Panchayat land.
• KVIC has thus created a world record of planting the highest number of bamboo saplings on a single day at one location.

Why Bamboo?

• KVIC has judiciously chosen bamboo for developing green patches.
• Bamboos grow very fast and in about three years’ time, they could be harvested.
• Bamboos are also known for conserving water and reducing evaporation of water from the land surface, which is an important feature in arid and drought-prone regions.

Significance of the move

• The project will help in reducing the land degradation percentage of the country, while on the other hand, they will be havens of sustainable development and food security.
• The bamboo plantation program will boost self-employment in the region.
• It will benefit a large number of women and unemployed youths in the region by connecting them to skill development programs.

Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

Q. Consider the following statements:

1. As per recent amendment to the Indian Forest Act, 1927, forest dwellers have the right to fell the bamboos grown on forest areas.
2. As per the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, bamboo is a minor forest produce.
3. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 allows ownership of minor forest produce to forest dwellers.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (CSP 2019)

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Back2Basics: Bamboo in India

• Bamboos are tall treelike grasses.
• With an amendment in 2017 in the Indian Forest Act 1927, the Bamboo has ceased to be a tree anymore.
• Earlier, the definition of tree in the law included palm, bamboo, brushwood and cane.
• The move aims to promote cultivation of bamboo in non-forest areas to achieve the “twin objectives” of increasing the income of farmers and also increasing the green cover of the country.
• Bamboo grown in the forest areas would continue to be governed by the provisions of the Indian Forest Act.

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