Bamboo in Orissa: Trade and Livelihood Perspective - Vasundhara

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A lot of cane used to be available from private wastelands or jungles in the coastal districts
(like at Bhedabandh, Belagadia, Balisinga and Jiala in the Kakatpur-Konark region of Puri
district). However, these resources have been badly affected due to utilisation of the
wastelands for cultivation, plantation (of commercial species of timber trees) or other
purposes. The super cyclone of 1999 also damaged some resource.
The impact of increasing scarcity of the raw material and the restriction imposed by the
govt has left the cane artisans in lurch. Transit is risky even if brought from private lands,
because the forest officials can not be convinced always; and some growers have not
agreed to give it in writing that it was collected from their land. Usually cane work is
considered superior to bamboo work and a caste known as betara pana used to deal in
only this 42 . Another reason for avoiding bamboo work by the betara community was that
bamboo work often needs a rough handling whereas cane work is comparatively delicate,
hence the skill of the hand may be affected if a cane-worker concentrates simultaneously
on bamboo also. Pana is a scheduled caste community, but the difference between betara
pana and other pana is that the latter are professional drum-beaters often invited in festive
occasions and hence they can depend both on bamboo work and drum-beating, whereas the
betara pana consider drum-beating a derogatory work. However, acute scarcity has forced
some of them to try their hand either on bamboo (as one can find at Belabani near
Nayagarh) or some other substitute like kia(Pandanus spp.) stem(as in Nilakanthapur
village near Charishri, Puri district). The betaras of Belabani were known as Raj-betara i.e.,
cane(beta in local language) workers in the service of the King; but almost all of them have
abandoned cane work since long, particularly after availability of the raw material in the
local area(like Sulia forest) was drastically reduced which forced them to switch over to
bamboo work permanently. In all such areas visited by us, one thing was common that they
themselves never tried to conserve and/or propagate the resource. Even at Nilakanthapur,
the artisans have probably only one cane clump left in the nearest wasteland, but no body is
trying to conserve the same. There is no coordination among the artisans on this issue and
everybody just considers that it is his right to exploit the available resource at the time of
need irrespective of the threat status of the resource.
Varieties
Artisans of Belabani distinguish the following varieties of cane:
Variety
Characteristic
Katha(kabari) beta Most preferred and commonly used for cane-work
Gauri(banambara) beta Very difficult to work; not used.
(Calamus latifolius)
Sauri beta
Not used by artisans; the sticks(lathi) used by
policemen can be made from it.
Pani beta(Cuttack cane or Found near water bodies(streams); less preferred
C.fasciculatus)
than kabari beta, but used particularly because the
products assume a reddish colour. Less durable.
42 Exceptions are said to exist, like in Kakatpur area some dama and bauri caste people are also said to be
practicing cane work. Good market demand of the product probably encouraged them in this line.
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