Singra Range guards ‘apprehended’ two elephants used by smugglers. Their colleagues at Bondapara Range ‘picked up’ another. Timber smugglers have their act checkmated for once. This has become possible because the forest department enlisted the willing cooperation of the locals. ‘Joint forest management committees’ did the trick. These have come up in the hilly terrain’s interior during April-May.

Elephants are the cheapest and best means to transport logs from inaccessible forest interior and the hilltops to the plains where the carts are waiting to ferry the logs to the merchandizing centres. Elephants are of great use in protecting the smugglers from beasts of prey. So, the best way to checkmate smugglers is make elephants ‘disappear’ from their service.

In South Kamrup itself, at least 40-50 tuskers are in the service of timber mafia. Once the monsoon sets in, , these animals are deployed for dragging the timber logs, taking advantage of the fact that forest staff cannot reach interior places. Forest rangers have neither vehicles nor are there any roads in the forests that remain in tact after the first shower.

Not only in Kamrup Forests, in the entire North-east, are elephants the trusted vehicles for smuggling of timber. West Kamrup Forest Division alone nabbed 35-40 elephants between January 2001 and January 2003.

After ‘the arrest’, the animals are mostly released on ‘bail’ on the condition that ‘the Gajaraja’ will not be ‘misused’.  But the elephants jump the bail. And timber smuggling continues!

NE poised for bamboo products boom

The Bamboo industry is set to see bright days with the launch of  $ 1.54-million cane and bamboo technological upgradation and networking project under which a Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre has also been set up.

The UNDP funded project is being executed by the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). Project Manager Partha Mazumdar said that so far the Centre organised 38 workshops and more than 900 persons were trained. The most recent workshop was on making of bamboo window blinds, which have a very good market in Europe and North America. Presently, that market is captured  by China.

Mazumdar revealed that under the project efforts are also being made to provide marketing avenues to the local craftsmen. Altogether 29 persons involved in making agarbati sticks were taken to a marketing meet, attended by representatives of 72 agarbati manufacturing companies in Bangalore in November last year and the craftsmen tied up with the agarbati manufacturers, which would provide them with steady income avenues for years to come. He also said that there is tremendous potential for marketing of bamboo floor boards, which are as good as any other-flooring material and one such unit is shortly coming up in the Amingaon area on the outskirts of Guwahati city. The unit will be established by a Kolkata-based company and the persons trained up by the Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre will get employment.

Mazumdar said that talks are also on with the Ministry of Labour for introducing bamboo technology courses in the ITIs and a meeting in this regard will be held on June 23 and 24 to discuss and possibly finalise the syllabus. The Department of Development of North-Eastern Region has also shown keen interest in this regard and if the Government of India clears the proposal, the course will be introduced in about eight ITIs in the first phase. Arrangements will also be made for training of teachers for the course in countries like Malaysia, China, Philippines, etc. If the course attracts students, the same can be introduced in other ITIs of the region in a phased manner.

A scheme has also been prepared to go for new bamboo plantation. The bamboo grown in our forests is not of very good quality to maintain uniformity of the products.  Deputy Commissioner, Kamrup Urban, has identified a plot for bamboo plantation and a NGOs has come forward for the project. The centre is also planning to encourage community bamboo plantation.

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