• After 90 years, the bamboo has legally ceased to be a tree with the government amending the Indian Forest Act and axing the bamboo – taxonomically a grass – from a list of plants that also included palms, skumps, brush-wood and canes.
• In doing so, said Union Environment Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, the government hoped 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.
• For several years now, the classification of the bamboo – with its multifarious uses as an edible item, furniture and construction – as a tree meant that it couldn’t be easily ferried across State borders.
• It also required permits from village councils and couldn’t be cultivated in non-forest areas.
• This will now create a viable option for cultivation in 12.6 million hectares of cultivable waste land.
• It will encourage farmers and other individuals to take up plantation/block plantation of suitable bamboo species on degraded land, in addition to plantation on agricultural land and other private lands under the agro-forestry mission.

Source:TH