Bamboo Harvesting Gets Minister's Nod
Author:
First published in Sanctuary Asia,
Vol. 31
No. 3,
March 2011
His letter on March 21 allows the tribal population and the people living on the fringes of the forests to harvest and sell the produce. The gram sabha will issue transit passes so that they can be transported to market places for sale. Earlier, the passes were issued by the forest department.
However, to guard against over-exploitation, the minister's letter has stressed that the impact of extraction should be reviewed every three years and appropriate changes made in the working plans and management plans.
The letter notes that the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 has defined all non-timber forest produce of plant origin including bamboo as minor forest produce. Till now, bamboo, a grass species, was treated as timber under provisions of the Indian Forest Act, 1927. Read the full report here.
Source: Dipannita Das, TNN, Pune.
