Gariwallahs, who are involved in the trade of bamboo, in the city. Telegraph picture

Ranchi, April 25: Take a walk near Circuit House in Lalpur area to find out how the state still lives in the past!

Here, one finds a number of bullock-cart drivers carrying hundreds of bamboo every day. Moving slowly on the busy city roads, the bamboo carriers evoke attention of passers-by as bells and lanterns tied to oxen’s neck jingle rhythmically. Yes, any elderly person would immediately identify that they are the posterity of those same gariwallahs whose forefathers had been carrying bamboo from remote villages to the city for more than a century.

For the past many decades the forests of Jharkhand abound in the production of bamboo. But even after so many years of independence, its trade still takes place through private gariwallahs. Says Md Junaid, a 62-year-old bullock-cart driver from Angara whose ancestors were also in the same job.

“I remember I had been coming to Ranchi since I was four. The only difference now is that earlier I used to accompany my father while I now come alone. What we do is that we collect bamboo from Ormanjhi, Bero, Angara and Namkum where it is grown on raiyati land and bring it near the Circuit House for sale. It is our means of livelihood.”

The remote pockets from where these gariwallahs bring bamboo are Jumlabeda, Sikidri, Pipratoli, Hajnet, Pansekam, Husrihatu, Rajadera, Getalsud, Beesbandag, Nabagarh and Kunte.

“It takes two full days and nights to reach the capital from these interior villages. The journey is quite arduous for we have to travel through undulating roads leading to the city. A lot of hardship has to be borne with it for we spend the night under trees. Here, we somehow cook rice in the dim light of the lantern tied around the neck of the bullocks. Often, on the way, thieves forcibly take our bamboo and other belongings.

“Apart from this, paying a bribe to the cops has become our compulsion,” says Karwa Mahto, a gariwallah who is returning home after spending days in the city to sell his entire stock.

The practice of using bullocks to carry bamboo makes them old in a mere three to four years. It therefore lies indisputably that the real sufferers behind the practice are the native gariwallahs in whose lifestyle there has been no change even after so many years.

Even the state forest department is silent on this issue of bamboo trade which city businessmen sell at exorbitant rates after purchasing at very low prices. The gariwallas demand that the government should develop this bamboo trade in a planned manner so that they get their “fair” share.

Bamboo, which is used mostly for the purpose of construction, painting and other highrise building work, yield high margin to big traders here.

“We have to sell a bamboo stick at Rs 30 which the city businessmen vend for Rs 80, making a profit of Rs 50,” said Chaita Uraoh, a gariwallah who comes here every week.