As per the revised policy issued on February 21, first priority to distribute state produced bamboo will be given to Nistar rights owners followed by those who have rights under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006. Nistar right is traditional access and entitlements over local forest resources of local communities which were recognized by different regimes.
"The bamboo left after distributing under Nistar and FRA will be sold through e-tendering process subject to certain conditions. No long-term agreements will be made henceforth," said Anil Mohan, acting principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) (production & management), Maharashtra.
The government on February 26, 2004 had signed a 10-year agreement with BILT, Ballarpur. This agreement is coming to an end on September 30. Till now a large chunk of bamboo was being procured by a private company while only 40,000 metric tonne (MT) was earmarked for small-scale units belonging to tribal sector. This was not enough looking into the potential and job opportunities and small players into the bamboo trade. This prompted the government to revise the policy.
Yet, the new policy is silent on silviculture or the manner of harvesting bamboo like number of bamboos to be cut from each clump, frequency or cutting cycle. It is also mum on working plan prescription for harvesting bamboo which may lead to over exploitation.
As per the policy, long bamboo will not be supplied to units. The term of agreements for supply will not be more than 6 years. Earlier, only small-scale units under tribal sector were given preference but now all small, medium and large units will be supplied bamboo through e-auction.
One of the conditions include that units will have to submit a plan that bamboo will be used as raw material to convert it into finished products. This plan will be approved by a state-appointed forest officer.
To give right to sign an agreement with bamboo units for six years, a seven-member committee headed by head of forests (HoFF) has been set up. APCCF (resource utilization) will be member-secretary of the committee while PCCF (production & management), CCF (territorial), divisional commissioner, industry department official and joint director (treasury) or additional chief secretary (finance) will be members of the committee.
The new policy will come into force immediately. Sunil Joshi, bamboo activist and promoter of Institute of Village Enterprise Development for Handicraft Artisans (VEDHA), an NGO exploring bamboo applications, said Vidarbha's bamboo interests have always been neglected.
Bamboo furniture units here have also been denied patronage by way of rate contract. This is despite the fact that the Planning Commission has projected a target of Rs26,000 crore from bamboo trade and related products in India by 2015.
"The state policy has failed to give impetus to the trade by failing to create employment opportunities and income for stakeholders from bamboo. Around 90% of bamboo goes to paper mills and most of it is illegally extracted to eke out a living," said Joshi.
New policy features
Policy in the backdrop of 10-year supply agreement with BILT coming to an end in September.
Nistar rights holders to get first priority followed by those under FRA 2006.
For the first time, bamboo will be e-auctioned.
Agreements with units will be for less than 6 years.
Units will have to furnish plans that raw bamboo will be used to make finished products.
Pricing mechanism of bamboo will depend on market forces.
Till now private companies overexploited bamboo crop in unscientific manner. The policy may be useful in maintaining growth of the crop.
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