|
The Steering Committee headed by the Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Dr. Prodipto Ghosh, reviewed the action plan to address the natural ecological phenomenon of gregarious flowering of muli bamboos, having high social and economic implications. Gregarious flowering of muli bamboos (Melocanna baccifera) is expected during the years 2004-07 in the North-East.
The proposed allocation by the Government of India is Rs. 105.00 crores to address this natural ecological phenomenon.
The states, expected to be affected by the gregarious flowering to varying extents, include Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Assam, Nagaland and Meghalaya.
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 the 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.
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.
AKS/rs
|
