Bamboo in Orissa: Trade and Livelihood Perspective - Vasundhara

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diverted his attention to bamboo and published two papers on the possibility of paper
making from bamboo in 1875 and 1879. This was followed by some more research and in
1908 the Govt of India/Burma sent 8 to 9 tons of bamboo to paper & pulp technologist
Mr.R.W.Sindall (England) for practical experimental purposes. This bamboo was
converted into paper and this paved the way for large scale utilisation of bamboo as a
major raw material in the paper industry (Bhargava, M. 1946; Bamboo for Pulp & Paper
Manufacture, Forest Research Institute, Dehradun; pp.1,2).
However, it took a considerable time for bamboo to gain importance in the paper industry.
After World War I, Indian paper mills got a better scope of marketing their products for
sometime, but competition with European paper gradually proved quite costlier for them.
During this period of struggle they were badly in need of a favourable policy environment
as well as some technical revolution that could save them from the cricis. The Government
therefore established a pilot bamboo pulping unit in 1919 which became operational in
1924. The mills realised the potential of bamboo in their business, but since the process of
bamboo pulping developed very slowly, they had to suffer for some more time. The Indian
Paper Pulp Company was the first mill to develop this process to a considerable extent
(Calcutta Paper Traders Association 2002-03,
www.papertradekolkata.com/paperorigin.htm).
When bamboo established itself in the industry, its scarcity became a matter of concern for
those states which depended on other states for the supply of bamboo. To solve this
problem states like West Bengal tried plantations of Eucalyptus and other species of hard
wood, but bamboo was still preferable because it produces the long fibred pulp required for
manufacturing quality paper, which these hard wood substitutes were unable to do
(Calcutta Paper Traders Association 2002-03, op.cit.).
In 1998, JK Paper Ltd. adopted, for the first time in India, the RDH(Rapid Displacement
Heating) technology which claimed to solve the short-fibre problem of hardwood. Brought
from Germany, this technology was expected to enable the paper industry to use 100%
hardwood as the raw material, thus completely eliminating, in principle atleast, the scope
of using bamboo. On the other hand, developments world-over were gradually reducing the
importance of long-fibrous production of paper since increasing use of computers helped
preservation of huge data in the electronic form as a result of which preservation of data on
durable papers was no more thought essential. Since demand for durable papers got
reduced substantially, hence emphasis of long-fibrous raw material was also
reduced(discussion with S. Jagdev).
Bamboo mats have been processed to produce roofing sheets like the asbestos ones;
however being subjected to heat and pressure they develop cracks causing leakage of water
when used for roofing. Gram Vikash, an NGO, is claimed to have first established an unit
for this purpose(see box under the title ‘PlyBoo: Value addition through reprocessing’) in
India. Currently other organisations are working on this and leak-proof coating have been
tried on such sheets to solve the problem.
Fine bamboo sticks are used as a stitching material in leaf-plates. They are also used in
making incense sticks.
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