Bamboo in Orissa: Trade and Livelihood Perspective - Vasundhara

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All rights reserved by VASUNDHARA(www.vasundharaorissa.org). For any clarification, contact author at sunlit1968@yahoo.co.in Grade Species Quantity in SU Industrial salia 230828.31 Commercial daba salia daba 6974.12 10141.481 777.328 The total production that year was 248721.239 SU which was less by 13398.588 SU of the target fixed(source: OFDC). Calculation of MT in terms of bundles or number of pieces is not possible because depending on the quality and thickness of bamboo, the weight may vary. For instance, some best quality bamboo produced from Narsinghpiur area weighed 1 MT at 17 bundles while ordinary quality may require 25 bundles for that. Heavier bamboo contains good % of cellulose, hence is preferred for paper production. It has been learnt from a reliable source that some paper mills used to have structures that would measure the bamboo bundles in terms of volume. This encouraged the cutters bring thicker bamboo pieces since that would quickly fill the target than the thinner pieces. Thicker pieces are heavier and this way the mills ensured procurement of the best quality bamboo. It may be recalled here that daba bamboo is thicker and heavier than salia. Also, thickness is an outcome of the maturity; hence even among salia, this criterion ensures harvesting of mature culms. Long(commercial) bamboo was not measured in terms of SUs, but in terms of pieces although some times the numbers were converted into SU by the formula SU= Numbers ÷ 350 22 . It often accounted for less than 2% of the total bamboo production (departmental) in the state. Ideally, the production should have increased after nationalization since OFDC started working in those inaccessible areas(like hill tops) which the paper mills used to avoid normally; but owing to the fact that silvicultural norms were respected by OFDC, a net decrease in production was noticed 23 . 22 For instance, the production of CB in 2002-03 was 43839. In terms of SU, this would be 125.25. 23 A retired SDM of OFDC confessed that although they were supposed to follow the cutting rules, in actual practice they saw that this would decrease the production; and hence, they did not stress on strict implementation of these rules. On the other hand, some supervisors having worked for TP Mill categorically dismissed the allegation that the lease-holders did not care for silvicultural norms. They said that since sustainability of the bamboo forest was in the long term interest of the lessee(during the pre-nationalisation period), hence silvicultural norms were duly respected. Rather, they were of the view that since OFDC lacked this kind of interest, the bamboo forests were worked unsustainably under the OFDC tenure. What seems to be the actual fact is that under the RMP system, the unsustainable operations increased substantially since there was no long term agreement with the paper mills(RMPs), and hence they tried to maximise their production in whatever way possible. 47
All rights reserved by VASUNDHARA(www.vasundharaorissa.org). For any clarification, contact author at sunlit1968@yahoo.co.in Production figures in SU/MT are not available before 1984-85 when a production of 304843 SU was recorded. The average annual production between 1984-85 and 1986-87 was 273937.6 SU. Figure are not available for 1987-88, but during 1988-89 the production was 260955 SU followed by 239002 SU in the next year(based on Govt of Orissa: Forest Department, A Decade of Forestry in Orissa:1981-90, Table 3.3.1). In 1992-93, a production of 241451.2 SUs was recorded which came down to 238357.31 SUs in the next year i.e., after the labour contractor system was adopted. Between 1994-95 and 1997-98 the average annual production was 226765.25 SUs(based on Govt of Orissa: Forest Department, Orissa Forest 1999,p.28). This suggests a declining trend though the production always remained above 2 lakh SUs during these years. IB verses CB: production approach of OFDC 300000 250000 Production in SU 200000 150000 100000 50000 0 1988-89 1990-91 1992-93 1994-95 1996-97 1998-99 2000-01 2002-03 Year Industrial bamboo in SU Commercial bamboo in SU Ban on bamboo working inside National Parks and sanctuaries is also a factor behind the decline in production figures. For instance, in Kalahandi district there used to be total 31 coupes out of which 4 have been excluded from working as these are situated inside the Karlapat sanctuary(Anupam Bharat, 26-9-03, p.4). The target of production used to be about 2.5 lakh SUs/annum during 1993-98 which came down to 1.5 lakh SUs till 1999-2000 for reasons explained earlier. The production in 2000-01 was only 7436 SUs of IB as worked out by BILT. There was no working in the next year. For 2002-03 the target was fixed at 36484 SUs of IB and 892 SUs of CB, but achievement was only 335.86 SUs as working was allowed too late. For 2003-04, the target verses achievement was as under: 48
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