(a) whether the Government has taken any steps for futuristic decision to exclude bamboo from definition of tree under the Indian Forest Act of 1927 and various advisories were also issued to States/UT for relaxing/exempting the regulatory regime for bamboo grown;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) the details of States that have relaxed felling and transit rules related to bamboo; and
(d) the details of employment potential/generation and economic benefits of bamboo cultivation to farmers?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(DR. MAHESH SHARMA)
(a) & (b) As per the Indian Forest (Amendment) Act, 2017 No. 5 of 2018 published in the
Gazette of India on 8th January, 2018, Section 2(7) of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 has been amended to omit the word “bamboos” from the definition of “tree” with effect from 23.11.2017. This was followed by various advisories issued to all States/UT Governments on 4.12.2017, 22.12.2017 and 25.06.2018 to bring necessary amendment/ modification in their respective State Forest acts/rules in order to ensure a uniform regulatory regime related to felling and transit of bamboo grown outside forests.
(c) 22 States/ UTs have already liberalized/ exempted bamboo from requirement of transit and felling permit. These States are Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Bihar, Punjab, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Telangana, Kerala, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.
(d) The restructured National Bamboo Mission (NBM) has been launched in April, 2018 under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. NBM focuses on the development of complete value
chain of bamboo sector to link growers with consumers starting from planting material, plantation, creation of facilities for collection, aggregation, processing marketing, micro, small and medium enterprises, skill development and brand building initiative in a cluster approach mode and help to enhance farmers income. The scheme is being implemented in non-forest Government land and private farmers field and States where it has social, commercial and economical advantage, including the bamboo rich States of North Eastern region and Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The details of plantation raised under NBM is given in Annexure-1. The details of State-wise plantation target approved as per Approved Action Plans received from States so far under restructured National Bamboo Mission is given in Annexure-II. All these activities will help in employment generation and economic benefits to farmers involved in bamboo cultivation.
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