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Bamboo biodiversity

  • 14/06/1996

Bamboo, the big brother in the Graminae (grass) family is often the first vegetation that sprouts in a degraded forest or a patch left after slash-and-burn agriculture. Most bamboo species flower gregariously in 15-60 year cycles.

in Arunachal Pradesh's local fore, bamboo flowering is associated with famines. K M Vaid, former senior research officer with the Forest Research Institute, Dehraclun, says this belief has a basis. According to him, seed dispersal following flowering possibly attracts rats to the area. After the season, when the seeds germinate or are finished, the huge rat population, deprived of food, targets crops.

Of the over 75 genera and 1,250 species of bamboo in the world, about 130 species belonging to 24 genera are found in India, ranging from the 30-40m tall Dendrocalamus giganteus to the one-metre-high Arundinaria densifloria. Of these, 20 genera are indigenous and four exotic.

The species of bamboo vary according to terrains. While the 0 strictus grows in well-drained hill slopes and rocky sites and the Bambusa barnbos in low-level river and stream banks, the D longispathus occurs in ravines, B tulda and B balcooa in plains and valleys and the A racemosa at heights of 1,800 to 2,800 m above the sea level. The D strictus is one of the most widely spread bamboos in the country.

The State Forest Research Institute (SFRI) centre in Chessa boasts one of the richest bamboosettums in India - a collection of 61 species, covering all the 20 indigenous varieties. The centre has a germplasm bank for preserving and multiplying bamboo species. The SFRI also documents the usage patterns of bamboo.

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