Bamboo Under the Forest Act and the Forest Rights Act

1.1 Is bamboo a tree or a grass?

Botanically, bamboo is a grass. It can grow tall and woody like a tree. Britannica calls bamboos tall treelike grasses.

The law once ignored the botany. The Indian Forest Act, 1927 listed bamboos inside its definition of a tree. Section 2(7) said a tree includes palms, bamboos, stumps, brush-wood and canes.

1.2 What did the tree label mean for a farmer?

Before 2017, felling and moving bamboo needed permits under the Act. This held for bamboo grown on forest land and on non-forest land. PIB called this a major impediment for farmers growing bamboo on their own land.

A permit was also needed to move bamboo between States. The Bill’s own statement of objects said farmers faced hardship in getting permits for felling and transit.

1.3 What did the 2017 amendment change?

The Indian Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2017 removed one word from section 2(7). That word was bamboos. The Bill replaced an Ordinance that the President promulgated on 23 November 2017.

Lok Sabha passed the Bill on 20 December 2017. Rajya Sabha passed it on 27 December 2017. Both Houses passed it. The Bill deems the change in force from 23 November 2017.

PRS explains the effect. Felling or transporting bamboo grown in non-forest areas no longer needs a permit.

1.4 Does the amendment cover bamboo inside forests?

No. The Environment Minister said bamboo grown in forest areas will continue to be governed by the Indian Forest Act, 1927. The reform is for non-forest land only.

1.5 What does the Forest Rights Act, 2006 say about bamboo?

The Forest Rights Act, 2006 is a different law with a different aim. It recognises the rights of forest dwellers. Section 2(i) defines minor forest produce, or MFP. The definition includes bamboo, brush wood, stumps and cane.

Section 3(1)(c) lists a right of ownership, access to collect, use and dispose of minor forest produce. The produce must be what the community traditionally collected, within or outside village boundaries.

2.1 What did the Supreme Court order in December 1996?

The case is T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India. On 12 December 1996, the Supreme Court passed an interim order. Paragraph 4 banned the movement of cut trees and timber from any of the seven North-Eastern States to other States.

The ban did not apply to certified timber needed for defence or other Government purposes. It also did not stop felling in a private plantation on land that is not forest.

2.2 Why did the order hit bamboo users?

Down To Earth links the incense shutdown to the Supreme Court ban on felling and moving bamboo. Incense stick units across the country shut from 15 February 1997. They had no bamboo splits.

A member of the All India Agarbatti Manufacturers Association told the magazine the ban affected over a million workers in Karnataka. The magazine called it a Rs 800 crore industry.

2.3 How did the Court answer?

The Court met again on 4 March 1997. It modified its order as an interim step. Down To Earth reports that the Court made clear the ban would not apply to minor forest produce, including bamboo.

So the later rule was already softer for bamboo. Plywood and timber mills were hit hard too.

2.4 How big was the damage to plywood?

Down To Earth wrote that Assam’s plywood industry made 60 per cent of the entire requirement of the country. It was the second biggest industry in Assam after tea.

A Wood Workers’ Union leader said most plywood mills stopped on 24 December 1996. He said about one lakh (100,000) people were directly affected. This is the union leader’s own estimate, not an official count.

2.5 Was the 2017 amendment a reply to the court order?

The sources do not say so. The Bill’s statement of objects gives other reasons. Farmers faced hardship in getting permits, and States needed free inter-State movement of bamboo.

The Minister’s reasons were to raise farm income and green cover. The court order and the 2017 Act are two separate stories. Both show how the tree label caused trouble.

3.1 Why do most bamboos flower only once?

Britannica says most bamboos flower only after 12 to 120 years of growth. They flower once in their lifetime.

Mizoram’s forest department adds that Melocanna baccifera and Bambusa tulda both have lifecycles of 48 years.

3.2 What is Mautam?

The bamboo fruit is edible. When many plants fruit at once, food for rats suddenly rises. The department says this causes an explosion in rat numbers.

The rats destroy seeds and seedlings. They also eat other crops and stored grain. Serious famines follow. The famines caused by Melocanna baccifera flowering are called Mautam. The flowering of Bambusa tulda causes Thingtam.

3.3 When did Mautam strike?

The department lists Mautam in Mizoram in 1815, 1863, 1911, 1959 and 2007. Each gap is 48 years. MP-IDSA called it a 48 to 49 year cycle. No source used here gives 50 years.

MP-IDSA notes bamboo groves began flowering in November 2007. It said the flowering came with ‘all the attendant consequences’, as it had in 1959.

3.4 Why does the cycle matter for exams?

It shows that a plant’s life cycle can shape a region’s food security. It also explains why the Mizo Hills famine of 1959 comes up in modern history. The Mizoram history lesson on this site covers the political result.

4.1 What is the National Bamboo Mission?

The National Bamboo Mission began as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme in 2006-07. It later came under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture during 2014-15. It continued until 2015-16, says PIB.

On 25 April 2018, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved a restructured Mission. It carried an outlay of Rs 1,290 crore, with Rs 950 crore as the Central share. The outlay was for the rest of the 14th Finance Commission period, which meant 2018-19 and 2019-20.

4.2 What has the restructured Mission achieved?

PIB’s 2025 backgrounder gives progress as of 31 December 2024. Here are the numbers.

• 408 bamboo nurseries, 14 of them accredited.
• 60,000 hectares of non-forest area under bamboo plantation.
• 104 bamboo treatment and preservation units.
• 528 product development and processing units.
• 130 market infrastructure facilities for bamboo trade.

4.3 What was done for the incense stick industry?

Incense sticks, or agarbatti, need thin bamboo sticks. In 2019 and 2020 the Government acted twice. PIB records that raw agarbatti imports moved from free to restricted trade from 1 September 2019.

A notification dated 9 June 2020 raised the import duty on round bamboo sticks for agarbatti from 10% to 25%. KVIC welcomed it. It said, quoting industry players, that at least one lakh new jobs would come in 8 to 10 months.

4.4 Is the supply gap closed?

The sources I used state the policy aims. They do not give a current share of imported sticks. So this lesson does not say how large imports are today.

What the sources do show is the intent. The Government wanted local bamboo to supply the incense trade, so that rural jobs stay at home.

5.1 Why does a legal label change a farmer's income?

Treating non-forest bamboo like an ordinary farm crop, rather than a regulated tree, opened new markets and income for rural growers. PIB said the reform would make a viable option of cultivation on 12.6 million hectares of cultivable waste land.

It also gave figures on the sector. Bamboo grows abundantly outside forests, with an estimated growing stock of 10.20 million tonnes. About 20 million people are involved in bamboo related activities.

PIB added that one tonne of bamboo provides 350 man days of employment.

5.2 Is bamboo really fast growing?

Yes. Britannica says bamboos are typically fast-growing perennials. Some species grow as much as 30 cm, or one foot, per day.

This lesson does not claim bamboo grows faster than every timber tree. None of the pages I used makes that comparison.

5.3 How much does the North-East hold?

An FAO paper quotes these figures. North Eastern states hold 28% of India’s bamboo area and 66% of its growing stock. Their share of stock is more than twice their share of area.

This is why the 1996 order mattered to the region. A big part of the country’s bamboo stock stands in the North-Eastern States.

5.4 What else can bamboo make?

PIB listed wood substitutes, panels, flooring, furniture, blinds, shoots for food, housing, charcoal and incense sticks. It said the change would also help paper and pulp units and rural craftsmen.