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The ‘bamboo’ also called poor man’s timber, is one of the most important forestry species having wide distribution throughout the country and has major contribution to the rural economy of India. Of the 1250 species under 75 genera distributed throughout the world, bamboo in India is represented by 125 species belonging to 23 genera under sub-family Bambusoideae of family Poaceae.
Bamboo forests in India occupy an extent of approximately 10.03 million hectares (mha), which constitutes almost 12.8% of the total forest area in the country. About 28% of the total bamboo area of the country is located in North-East India. Of the total bamboo growing stock of about 80.42 million tonnes, two-third is available in the North-East India.
There are about 1500 documented applications of bamboos, of which major ones include use in building materials, agricultural implements, furniture, musical instruments, food items, handicrafts, large bamboo based industries, packaging, to name a few.
Gregarious flowering
Most of the bamboo species flower after the end of a long number of years of vegetative growth. The flowering is synchronous over vast tracts of varying extent and this phenomenon is called “gregarious flowering”. The gregarious flowering has been observed to occur at regular time intervals. Such a peculiar behaviour of bamboos often creates ecological, economic and social problems, particularly in the North-East India because of its poor infrastructure development. Gregarious flowering of muli bamboos (Melocanna baccifera) is expected during the years 2004-07 in the North-East. The states, expected to be affected by the gregarious flowering to varying extents include Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Assam, Nagaland and Meghalaya.
Why does gregarious flowering occur?
Although a wide range of research is going on, the flowering of bamboo is still unexplained and mysterious. There are several theories on the causes of flowering and death of bamboos such as the ones relating the phenomenon to pathological, periodical, mutational, nutritional, human, resource matching, predator satiation reasons, and bamboo wildlife cycle hypothesis.
Physiologically, the bamboos differ significantly from other vegetation because of the mechanism of flowering. Generally, most of the bamboo species flower gregariously at fixed intervals and all clumps including those of current year die after flowering. Majority of bamboos fall between the two physiological states of constant flowering (Bambusa atra) and constant sterility (Bambusa vulgaris). Some bamboos die within two years after flowering (B. arundinacea) while others do not die but then growth slows down during the flowering period as in Phyllostachys and Arundinaria species.
The flowering is like setting on an alarm clock which is set to go off at a particular time when all populations of a given species raised from the same seed source, no matter where they are situated, would start flowering at the same time. For example, seeds of Thyrsostachys oliveri that flowered in Burma in 1891 were sown at Calcutta and Dehradun- two places separated by 1500 km from each other. The clumps raised from these seeds flowered simultaneously at Calcutta and Dehradun in 1940 and flowered again in 1987-88 indicating the flowering cycle of 48 years.
Why gregarious flowering is so much cause of concern?
In the North-Eastern states, based on personal experiences, the local people have knowledge on the periodicity and problems associated with gregarious flowering in the region. It may also be stated that the factors responsible for flowering have not been understood fully. Nearly all bamboos have their own life history and all of them flower once in lifetime.
Immediate effects of gregarious flowering
Sudden availability of huge stockpiles of dry bamboos- a big fire hazard.
Explosion in population of rodents due to availability of excess food in the shape of bamboo seeds.
Sudden shortage of seeds due to germination and the rodents feeding on agricultural food crops.
Shortage of food for the people.
The people dependent on bamboo for livelihood purposes deprived of the source materials.
Fear of outbreak of an epidemic.
There is a general belief supported by some scientific perspective that the gregarious flowering of bamboos brings famine. The phenomenon can be explained as a chain of events occurring in the following sequence. The gregarious flowering of bamboos produces large quantities of seeds, which in turn causes sudden population explosion in rats. However, the quantity of seeds available for rats diminishes soon on the germination of seeds after the rains. The resultant short supply of bamboo seeds on the one hand and a large population of rats on the other, makes rats heading towards the farmlands in the adjoining areas and causing wide spread loss to the crops. Such a chain of events has the potential to cause famine.
Past history of gregarious flowering
Although no scientific detailed study is available, there are reports that document the historical occurrence of bamboo flowering and famine in North-East India particularly in Mizoram. The recorded bamboo flowering in Mizoram suggests that the two earlier events of gregarious flowering had occurred in a time block of 1911-1912 and 1959-1960 respectively. The last gregarious flowering of muli bamboo in Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur and Barak Valley of Assam has been reported in 1958-59, which was followed by famine in those areas. Based on this, the projections have been made that the next flowering cycle is expected to occur during 2004-2007.
Magnitude of the problem likely to arise
The Rain Forest Research Institute (RFRI), Jorhat, one of the institutes under the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), Dehradun has estimated that gregarious flowering of Melocanna baccifera will occur in an area of about 18,000 sq km in the States of Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur and parts of Assam, Nagaland and Meghalaya. During the year 1959, there was gregarious flowering of this species followed by severe famine in 1960 in Mizoram. Again when there was large-scale flowering of B. tulda in Mizoram in the latter half of 1970s, there was a phenomenal increase in the rat population. About 2.5 million rats were reportedly killed in just one year in 1978. It could be an indicator to the magnitude of the problem that is likely to arise during 2004-07. RFRI has estimated that out of a total 26 Million Tonnes (MT) of bamboos available, about 10 MT occur in accessible areas and can be harvested before flowering between the years 2004 and 2006.
Proposed mitigation strategy
The Government of India has constituted a Steering Committee to chalk out a detailed strategy and action plan to address this natural ecological phenomenon with high social and economic implications. The Steering Committee has taken note of the recommendations of the three different task forces, i.e., ‘Task Force on Regeneration”, ‘Task Force on Harvesting and Marketing’ and ‘Task Force on Rodent Control’ and ‘preparedness reports’ of the state forest departments for formulating a draft action plan. As per the estimates provided by the state forest departments, an approximate extent of 11980 sq km is expected to be under gregarious flowering of which only less than two percent is proposed to be regenerated artificially over a period of five years.
The major points in the action plan where action is required the various stakeholders are:
Resource survey and mapping: There is an urgent need for a detailed resource survey and mapping of the bamboo resources of the North-Eastern states. Action has already been initiated for developing a ‘Bamboo-GIS’ for North-East India in collaboration with the International Network for Bamboos and Rattan (INBAR), New Delhi; Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun; Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) Dehradun; Forest Departments (FDs) and RFRI. Identification and grading of all muli bamboo-bearing areas for development interventions need to be done on priority basis. This has to be done both for the forest and non-forest areas
Resource extraction and management: The states are being provided with financial assistance for improvement of the transport network to facilitate large-scale extraction of bamboos from affected areas. Introduction of improved tools-both mechanized and hand tools – are needed for cost effective extraction of bamboos.
Resource utilization: Various cottage industries requiring minimum investment such as units manufacturing ‘agarbati’ sticks, tooth picks, bamboo mats etc., will be promoted by forming clusters comprising 5-10 closely placed villages and providing them with know-how, hand tools, machine tools and the marketing avenues. The Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited and paper mills located in other parts of the country may be persuaded to first consume the stocks of Muli bamboo of the North-Eastern region by suspending consumption of other species during the period of flowering
Regeneration plan: The concerned forest department has been advised to pay adequate attention to mark the accessible areas, which will be taken up for composite regeneration involving regulated natural regeneration (about 80%), planting with other economically more important species of naturally occurring bamboos in the region (say 15%) and tree plantation of naturally occurring species (say 5%) in a phased manner.
Rodent control and precautionary measures to control spread of epidemic: In order to control the increase in population of rodents, the state governments have drawn detailed contingency plans for procurement, storage and distribution of rodenticides, and for creating awareness among the people about the need of drastically reducing the rat population. For this, the state governments may institute some kind of incentive at the district level involving the local administration to reward people actively engaged in controlling the population of rodents. The health departments also need to have plans for health safety of the people to avoid any chances of outbreak of an epidemic due to population explosion of rodents.
Famine control: The Food and Civil Supplies Departments of the states have been advised to chalk out detailed plans for making arrangements for procurement, storage and quick distribution of food items in the event of a famine. They need to have safe storage godowns and necessary infrastructure for timely and efficient distribution of food supply. If the famine does not occur, the plans for utilization of the extra food stock and saving them from rodent damage should also be kept ready.
Control of fire hazard: The state governments are taking all necessary measures for prevention and control of fire hazard, through employment of watchers, involvement of local people, procurement of fire fighting equipment and by creating general awareness about fire damage and control.
Development of necessary infrastructure: The proposals in the action plan include provisions for building up of necessary infrastructure required for addressing this problem like improvement of roads and buildings, procuring of vehicles for the departments dealing with the issue, setting up of health centres, godowns for storage of materials, medicines, small research stations for carrying out research on the related aspects of flowering for future guidance and documentation of all the sequence leading to gregarious flowering and its handling.
Awareness campaign: The states have finalized plans for creation of awareness among the people about this impending problem and issue a set of dos and don’ts for the people.
AKS/rs
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