Dr. Supong Keitzar
INTRODUCTION
In one of the press releases, the Hon’ble Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio aptly mentioned that “Bamboo is a part of Naga life.”It is very true, since time immemorial; bamboos have exerted profound influence on the life and culture of Naga people. From the very beginning of the Naga history, bamboo has been used as one of the weapons for hunting and fighting. It has legends, songs, folklore, etc. Many years ago my grandfather used to tell us if a Naga had a few groves of bamboo in his estate, he was a happy man and nothing much to worry about. The reason behind is that bamboo can fulfill all the basic requirements for a family. It can provide building materials, household utensils starting from storing and carrying water, baskets for storing grains, cups, plates, etc. In those days in cultivation fields and also at home they cooked rice, curry, prepared tea in bamboo and even today some people prefer curry particularly fish curry cooked in bamboo. Bamboos are extremely versatile and useful group of plant under Gramineae, which the family contains the most important of all the plants to mankind. The members of this family are commonly known as grasses. The important members are rice, wheat, maize, sugarcane, etc. Bamboos are utilized intensively a wide range of purposes. Besides, they have long histories of use and play very significant roles in the daily lives of millions of people around the world. Another incredibly significant about bamboos in these days of rapid environmental deterioration, they are highly renewable resources. As often mention in literature, bamboo is really a ‘Green Gold.”If sufficient green groves are maintained as part of the integrated farming system all over the State, Nagaland can be a Carbon sink area contributing towards checking/slowing down the global warming. Such messages can be carried through press and various media to create awareness among the community. People having a few groves of bamboos can make a living out of it. The best example, in Anji County in Hangzo (China) during my visit, I met a family, which could live a comfortable life out of the estate having just fifteen (15) numbers of bamboo groves. My father was very fond of growing bamboos in our estate. I could say that my father was one who could make a substantial return out of bamboos. Today, he is no longer with us but I learnt lots about bamboos.
ORIGIN AND SPECIES DISTRIBUTION
We already know what is a bamboo? Bamboo is a tree grass characterized as having woody, normally hollow culms, complex rhizome and branch systems, petiolate leaf blades and prominent sheathing organs. Bamboos are abundantly found in tropical and sub-tropical countries and even in temperate regions, however, their distributions are worldwide. There are more than 1000 species and more than 80 genera are found so far. Bamboo classification is still far from satisfactory and most genera are still not properly understood. It is, therefore, difficult to provide correct information on their origin. However, possible centres of diversity of bamboo could be tropical America, Madagascar and Southeast Asian countries including India. Holttum (1958) observed that geographical distribution is greatly influenced by human activities. Bambusa and Dedrocalamus are most widespread genera and also native to tropical Asia. Genus Gigantochloa is also quite widespread and native to Southeast Asia. Some of these genera are appeared to be endemic to India. Chief Minister Rio in his press statement mentioned at least 46 species could find in Nagaland. Possibly some of the species of Bambusa and Dedrocalamus might be endemic to the State. However, through research and detailed studies of Morphology and Taxonomy will help us to identify more species.
PROPERTIES
One of the characteristics, which determines the quality and utility of bamboos are its properties. There are three important properties namely, Physical, Mechanical and Chemical properties. Each of these properties is important in terms of determining the strength, density, elasticity (bending, compression), and also important chemical properties are presence of cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin. Chemical composition of bamboo is special interest to pulp and paper industry. For builders and construction materials, the moisture content of bamboo culms is important, which can influence mechanical properties as well.
CULTURAL ASPECTS
Bamboo is an important part of the culture of Naga people. It plays a crucial role in Naga myths, legends and rituals, and also in headhunting history. In any festive activities, the bamboo plays most fundamental role; for example, in Mizoram the famous “Bamboo Dance.”This is one of the cultural factors which romanticises the role of bamboo in festive celebrations. One very interesting cultural aspects of bamboo are from the earliest times peoples have used a bamboo knife to cut the umbilical cord at birth. This custom occurs in all the Naga tribes.
BOTANY
Bamboo belongs to the family Gramineae (Poaceae) and forms the tribe Bambuseae of the subfamily Bambusoideae. Bamboos are tall grasses having tree-like habit and can be characterized as having woody, normally hollow culms, complex rhizomes and branch systems, petiolate leaf blades and also prominent sheathing organs. Kurz (1876) and Gamble (1896) were the first botanists who had provided some general information on Morphological and Anatomical studies, and later in the mid-20th century Holttum (1958) had the extensive studies but never a complete work. Recent with the renewed interest many scholars are putting more detailed studies realizing the incredibly versatile roles of the bamboos.
FLOWERING
Bamboo has three flowering behaviours: (a) Annually (b) Gregariously and (c) Irregularly. Most bamboo species have long intervals and few have short intervals between two successive gregarious flowerings. Some species of bamboos in Nagaland flower within intervals of 35 to 50 years. It is, however, very difficult to predict the exact year or age at which the bamboo will produce inflorescence except few species like Bambusa bambos, Bambusa nutans, Gigantochloa albociliata and Thyrsostachys oliveri and Thyrsostachys regia that can reasonably predict the age at which some of the bamboos will flower gregariously and ultimately die. Once the bamboos flower, they produce abundant seeds called fruit or caryopsis and the whole plant dies as any other members of the grassy family.
There is a strong belief among the Naga farming people that gregarious flowering of certain bamboo species is associated with famine and appearance of large numbers of mammals, birds and especially proliferation of rodents. They move from the adjoining area to feed on the seeds, also populations increase in large numbers by higher rate of breeding. This is a major problem for the farmers, near the bamboo area to protect the crops just after a gregarious flowering of bamboos. Last six years, Naga farmers are also facing the same problem because of rodent menace on account of gregarious flowering of certain species like Bambusa bambos, Bambusa baccifera, Dendrocalamus helmiltonii, and Dendrocalamus strictus. However, I am happy to observe that the Department of Agriculture is doing excellent job by providing material inputs, extension services and creating awareness through training and media.
EXPLOITATION AND CULTIVATION
One good part of Naga farmer is that each farmer always keeps few groves of bamboos in the homestead garden or in the cultivation areas. This is mainly due to part and parcel of Naga way of life and multiple utility of bamboos. It is inseparable from socio-economic life of the Naga. For many years, people have been utilizing bamboos collected from the wild as well as from species already domesticated. Most young shoots are collected from bamboos growing in the wild. People collect bamboos mainly from wild since still plenty available but few selected useful bamboos are always planted in the jhum fields to meet the household requirements. Bamboos are also planted around the villages, often becoming naturalized and growing spontaneously. Traditionally villagers have used bamboos on a more or less sustainable basis, renewing homestead gardens by planting new plants. Some of the prominent species of bamboos cultivated by the farmers are Bambusa tulda, B. Bambos, B. Balcooa, Dendrocalamus helmiltonii, D. Giganteus, D. Hookeri, etc.
METHODS OF PROPAGATION
Bamboos can be propagated through various methods such as seeds, rhizome cuttings, culm cuttings, branch cuttings, layering and finally through tissue culture. Recently, propagation through Tissue Culture is becoming increasingly important. However, rhizome division is traditionally the best way to propagate the bamboo vegetatively. Local people prefer this method of propagation because young clumps are quickly produced. One problem in this method is transportation of bulky material, which is susceptible to drying out and high labour costs involved in collecting the offsets for mass propagation on a large scale.
USES
Bamboo is one of the natural resources for the people living in the tropics and sub-tropics. On account of its wide distribution, availability, rapid growth, easy handling and desirable properties, it has been used widely in the daily life of the local people as a sustainable resource. The most significant uses are for building materials, basket making, musical instruments, handicraft, paper, furniture, hedges and wind-break and as a vegetable. Bamboo shoots are an important vegetable in south-east Asia and especially among the Nagas, it is a delicacy which can hardly compare with other vegetables. Varieties of recipes can be prepared from young bamboo shoots. Thousands of rupees can be earned, if some young entrepreneurs can establish bamboo shoot factory. I was told in Chinese Academy of Tropical Forestry (Hangzo) that the Chinese are earning million of dollars through bamboo shoots alone. This is what the Green Gold is turning to real Yellow Gold. In general, young shoots of many bamboo species are edible but only a few bamboos produce superior quality, for example Dendrocalamus asper, Gigantochloa levis, G.albociliata and Thyrsostachys siamensis. In China, superior bamboo shoots are obtained from Phyllostachys pubescens and Dendrocalamus latiflorus. Besides, there are many other uses of bamboos. Because of its extremely versatile nature, it has multiple uses, which we cannot list here due to lack of space.
CONCLUSION
Recently concluded the World Bamboo Day and NE International Bamboo Festival at Kisama with much appreciation and putting Nagaland on the top list of the Bamboo Universe. Much of the credit will go to State Chief Minister Shri Neiphiu Rio whose initiative makes it possible the great event. While unveiling the State Bamboo Mission Policy at Heritage Bamboo Hall Monolith, the Chief Minister even announced that the State would achieve a target of 50,000 hectares of bamboo plantation within the next five years and create Rs. 500 crore bamboo based economy by 2020. Being intrinsically woven into the cultures and tradition of the people, Chief Minister said if given with proper direction and right thrust, bamboo can become a foundation of economic growth and provide wealth and livelihood to the people of Nagaland.
There are still many people in rural areas that depend on bamboo for part or all their income. Their livelihoods depend almost wholly on the harvesting, processing and selling of bamboos and bamboo products such as young shoots, baskets, mats, and various handicrafts. In China and Thailand, there are many farmers grow bamboos as a component in integrated farming systems. There are many reasons why bamboo is so closely associated with lives of many people particularly rural community. To begin with, the raw materials have been available at low cost and still large amounts of material come from natural stands of bamboo. Bamboo is relatively easy to cultivate and manage at any environments. Bamboo is also now recognized as an important crop and a source of income to people with limited opportunities to cash income. It is a versatile raw material for a wide range of small and medium scale enterprises, and so serves as a basis for employment and generation of income. Recent excitement about the potential of bamboo is its positive impacts on climate change by creating better area for carbon sequestration and thereby mitigates climate change. It is, however, one small grey area should be aware of the negative impacts and which cannot be ignored. There is a strong belief that Gregarious flowering of bamboos in parts of the State and also parts of the north eastern states is associated with famine and appearance of large numbers of mammals, birds and especially proliferation of rodents, which are devastating to the standing crops in the fields. There is possible related problem is the releasing substantial amounts of carbon in the form of dry bamboos. Because bamboo is being a grassy family once gregarious flowering is over, the whole plant dies.
There is therefore, an urgent need to evolve strategic plan to cope up with such associated problems in future, and this should be clearly defined in the existing policy in local context considering topography, vegetation, soils and cultural aspects. “Bamboo is a poor man’s timber today but a good timber substitute for tomorrow; work for it today or there will be nothing for tomorrow.”
(The writer is a former Director of Agriculture, Government of Nagaland)
