Bamboo in Orissa: Trade and Livelihood Perspective - Vasundhara

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would expose the inner parts of the same to elephants and smugglers, etc., thereby
facilitating the damage/theft(discussion with Dilip Pradhan) although silvicultural
prescriptions are there to take precautions against the same.
Young shoots(karadi) are not supposed to be cut. The cutters select the appropriate culms
on the basis of their experience and perceptions. Culms of different ages have one or more
distinguishing feature on them(like, presence/absence of nodal sheaths, difference in colour
and also in the height to which ash-like patches are naturally found on them) which helps
for their selection.
The silvicultural rules also prescribe that after cutting, all debris should be removed from
the clump, and the latter is to be left cleaned. Precautions should be taken so as to avoid
any damage to rhizomes or rootstock; and exposed rhizomes should be covered with soil
wherever possible(Singh B.P., Revised Working Plan for the RFs and DPFs of Angul
Forest Divn.:1990-91 to 1999-2000,pp.551).
During summer, the cutters usually prefer to work from 6 am to 10 am; and during winter,
from 8 am to 2 pm.. This is because with a burning sun over their head they find it difficult
to continue working. However, since they are paid on the basis of their harvest, many of
them try to work till afternoon so as to harvest (and earn) more.
Coupes in a hilly terrain are normally divided into three compartments and the most
difficult one is worked out first; i.e., cutting in the hill tops starts first and is over by March
since during summer working in that area would be very difficult. October to December is
considered to be the best time for the operation.
An expert cutter can normally harvest 6 to 8 bundles of daba bamboo in 4 to 6 hours as
against 4 to 5 bundles of salia during the same time. This is simply because a standard
bundle of industrial bamboo contains culms each about 2.3 metres(approx. 7 ft. 6 inches) in
length, and the number of pieces is only 7 in case of daba 13 as against 21 in case of salia.
Hence, cutting a bundle of salia means cutting 200% more culms than daba. On the other
hand, the cutters are more comfortable with salia than daba because the latter contains
thorns and is tougher for cutting.
Salia being a hilly species, its harvesting operations are normally confined to hill areas. On
high hills, a cutter can harvest max. 5 to 6 bundles of salia per day as against 12 to 14
bundles of the same in the lower slopes. Hence, the average rate of harvest per cutter per
day is taken to be 8 bundles. Operations in the Dasapalla area in 2005 reportedly had a
yield varying from 10 to 15 bundles per day per cutter, and to include dragging hours on
the day of cutting, the average production was reduced to 12 bundles as against 15 bundles
without dragging (source: Mr. S.D.Sinha, BILT).
old are to be harvested on culm-selection basis provided the number of culms left uniformly distributed in a
clump should not be less than 10 (Singh B.P., Revised Working Plan for the RFs and DPFs of Angul Forest
Divn.:1990-91 to 1999-2000; pp.550-551).
13 Earlier, a daba bundle would contain 6 pieces, each 6 ft. 8 inches long. OFDC probably wanted to adopt a
uniform standard(length) for both daba and salia.
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