Bamboo - Tree or Grass?

Did you know on 11th June 2020-

The government of India had increased import duty on bamboo sticks from 10% to 25%.

Why?

Because of the heavy import of bamboo sticks from China and Vietnam caused huge employment loss in India. This decision will pave the way for setting up of new agarbatti stick manufacturing units to meet the ever-growing demand of Agarbatti in India.

India is the second-largest producer of Bamboo after china- Then why we are importing bamboo from china as we know we don't require heavy machinery unit for making bamboo products.

Reason is -Indian Forest Act, 1927

In this act, Indian Forest Act, 1927 considered bamboo as tree.

Cutting or transportation of bamboo was invited trouble.

Accordingly, cutting bamboo from outside forests and transporting it was made unlawful.

As a result, farmers in the bamboo-growing states, particularly the North East ( NE is the highest producer of bamboo), had to face harassment quite often because they could neither cut it nor transport it.

But in 2017, Government of India, amended the bill and as per Indian Forest Amendment Bill, 2017- labelled bamboo as grass not tree.

Now there is no prohibition on growing or cutting bamboo trees even outside the forests.

High Import duty and the amended law will help the production of the bamboo product in India

Several industries including paper and furniture making ones will immensely benefit out of the amended law. An exponential increase in the growing and consumption of bamboo cannot be denied. It augurs a new era for the tribal areas as well.