File picture of bamboo products at a fair

Kohima, July 15: Nagaland will host World Bamboo Day on September 18 under the aegis of the World Bamboo Organisation on the theme Bamboo for Livelihood and Community Development.

The Nagaland Bamboo Development Agency will also host a three-day Northeast international bamboo festival from September 16 to 18 at Naga heritage village Kisama, nearly 15km from Kohima.

Over 200 participants from around the world, including the World Bamboo Organisation, representatives from the Centre, northeastern states, officials, ambassadors and high commissioners from Asean countries will attend the celebration and festival.

According to the agency, the festival will showcase the achievements of the National Bamboo Mission in India, especially the Northeast.

It will include a cultural programme, bamboo planting, green marathon, bamboo sport, field visit, crafts and painting contest, symposium and workshops, competitions among students, exhibition and bamboo craft and products and bamboo music and food festival.

The Northeast is a treasure-trove of bamboo with almost 28 per cent of bamboo cultivation located in the region. Nearly 5 per cent of India’s growing stock of bamboo is in Nagaland, according to the agency.

World Bamboo Day was declared in 2009 by the World Bamboo Organisation along with the Thai Royal Forest department to create awareness on the uses of bamboo, considered green gold in the region.

The raw stock of bamboo in the region is conservatively valued at Rs 5,000 crore.

The agency said an annual turnover of approximately Rs 10,000 crore could easily be generated in the region.

In Nagaland, the government has termed the policy Bamboo as Resource and Bamboo as Enterprise.

The agency says it has made progress but has miles to go to reach the levels attained by other countries.

The Nagaland Bamboo Resource Centre at Dimapur was established as a centre of excellence to facilitate technology and to create awareness on the potential of bamboo and train entrepreneurs.

A bamboo nursery, a vegetative propagation unit, a bamboo septum, charcoal production kilns, a charcoal briquette unit, a bamboo treatment plant, a bamboo stick, strips and sliver production unit, a bamboo fibre sanitary napkin unit and a Venetian blinds weaving unit have been set up. A bamboo-based 100KVA gasifier unit, a bamboo park, a museum, a library and a technology park will also be set up.

Altogether 4.5 lakh bamboo seedlings were distributed to farmers from the nursery. Around 1.58 lakh bamboo seedlings were also supplied to Manipur, Andhra Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh.

The agency has, with the assistance of the National Mission on Bamboo Application, set up 45 bamboo charcoal kilns each with a capacity to produce 300kg per cycle.

The kilns have been set up in Peren and Dimapur districts in view of the ongoing flowering of bamboo while three units have been set up at Wokha, Tuensang and Kiphire districts.

The agency said bamboo mats produced by the Anaki bamboo cluster consisting of five villages under Mokokchung district are being supplied Arunachal Ply Industries Ltd.

The cluster is currently supplying 6,000 mats per month selling at a price of Rs 50 per mat and generating monthly revenue of Rs 3 lakh.

A marketing tie up has been established with a Bangalore firm to supply bamboo from the state.

Bamboo charcoal from the state is being supplied to Arunachal Pradesh in addition to sales in the local market. During 2006, 44 tonnes of bamboo shoots were arranged from Jalukie bamboo cluster through the Village Bamboo Resource Centres and supplied to Nagaland Foods Pvt Ltd.