Bamboo in Orissa: Trade and Livelihood Perspective - Vasundhara

All rights reserved by VASUNDHARA(www.vasundharaorissa.org). For any clarification, contact author at sunlit1968@yahoo.co.in
Since the Govt of Orissa did not develop an alternate market for its huge production of
industrial bamboo, lack of demand at paper mills has weakened its position the advantage
of which is taken by the mills. Now they declare that if the govt makes a user-friendly
policy and reduces bamboo price to the rate affordable by them, then they are ready to
purchase industrial bamboo from Orissa. The royalty had been increased to almost
Rs.650/SU in 1999-2000 which caused great resentment among the mills. Already they had
complained that although the govt claimed that one SU was equal to one MT, actually it
came to about 0.8 to 0.6 MT causing financial loss to the purchaser. Under such
circumstance further increase in royalty was not a decision to be welcomed naturally.
Red-tapism and negligence of one or more of the concerned authorities is said to be one of
the factors that led to the critical situation regarding non-disposal of bamboo. For instance,
in Deogarh region OFDC harvested and stacked industrial bamboo worth Rs.2 crores
which was supposed to be lifted by Orient Paper Mills. However, the Mill was closed
before lifting the same. Some hope was still there as other paper mills had expressed
interest to purchase the same, but the standstill situation continued simply because the
concerned high level committee delayed in taking a decision regarding the price (The
Prajatantra, 22-4-02, p.6). Similarly, Ballarpur Industries, which was the procuring agent
for bamboo in the Kalahandi district, could only partially lift the stock in 2000-01 as it
received the work order very late(The New Indian Express, 30-4-02, p.6) 36 .
In 2001-02, the revenue from bamboo had come down to merely 2.3% of the forest
revenue in the state. By September 2002, around 48,000 SUs of bamboo were rotting in the
depots of OFDC. As deterioration in quality owing to non-disposal would cost the
Corporation dearly, the government decided to reduce the royalty from Rs.650(approx.) to
350 per SU, and also authorised OFDC to auction and sell the stocks at any price (Saxena,
op.cit., pp.5,15). In fact, the previous sale price of Rs.1650/SU was decreased to
Rs.1150/SU for 2002-03. In 2003, the average sale price through national tender was
Rs.1460/MT(notional).
The first national tender was on 16.9.02, but was cancelled due to very low offer. Next one
was on 25.10.02 when the offer from Bhadrachalam Paper Board to purchase 7243.59 SU
of IB(salia) @Rs.334.42 was accepted. The third one was on 20.1.03 when the offer from
the AP Paper Mills to purchase 1562.13 SU @Rs.225.91, and that from BILT to purchase
6867.54 SU @Rs.322.58/SU was accepted.
For 2004-05, the Empowered Committee had recommended for a sale price @Rs.1700/MT
as per the following break-up:
36 The work orders were originally issued to OFDC which worked only in 16 coupes and surrendered the rest
showing reason of late receipt of the work order( Anupam Bharat, 26-9-03, p.4).
76