Research & Thesis

Restoration of Forest-based Livelihood Resources in Tripura through bamboo cultivation Subrata Ghosh In order to secure sustainable livelihood alternatives through restoration of dependable resources and promotion of viable agro-forestry models, the Centre for Forest-based Livelihoods and Extension (CFLE) at Agartala in Tripura under banner of Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) has initiated a comprehensive plan to boost bamboo plantation. This has achieved success to a considerable extent in Tripura to meet the huge demand for green gold, the supply of which has recently suffered a setback. In a bid to encourage farmers to take to planting bamboos in a large scale and add value to their finished products, the Centre for Forest-based Livelihood and Extension (CFLE) at Gandhigram in Agartala has begun supplying mother plants of various important species for homestead nurseries and issuing bamboo treatment machines on a use-and-return basis. Tripura is facing a scarcity of bamboo because of large-scale flowering and resultant death of the plants, especially the local Muli species, even though farmers prefer to take up rubber plantation for higher economic returns. The Centre for Forest-based Livelihoods and Extension in Agartala has taken up a participatory programme i.e. eco-restoration of resources for forest-based livelihood security, in two village clusters to grow and multiply bamboos in several hamlets of Tripura. Now there is a vast demand for millions of new bamboo plants. Besides the domestic market, bamboo is also required to fulfill sustainable demand of raw material at nearby paper mills and other bamboo-based industries like incense stick, bamboo boards and tiles factories. Among other things, the ‘Muli’ bamboo is used to make incense sticks and is also exported to southern states. Tripura needs nearly 2.5 tonnes of bamboo annually and more than two lakhs people in the state are directly involved in bamboo cultivation. The Centre’s representatives demonstrate techniques of bamboo nursery, treatment and low-cost vermi-composting to the beneficiaries of selected village clusters to support all round development of the bamboo sector including value addition. Initially, the Centre provides all technical support, material for soil-bed treatment, hormones, starter column cuttings, mother plants and seeds, banners, pamphlets and other audio-visual facilities for publicity among local and national buyers. “As this is a plan based on community participation, social institutions like self-help groups (SHGs), NGOs and youth clubs are assigned to monitor individual activities. Material support is provided through these institutions on the basis of assessment of the individual’s or the group’s progress as and when they require”, said Pawan K. Kaushik, Regional Director of Centre for Forest Based Livelihoods and Extension, Agartala. “The Muli bamboo, which flowers after 48 years, has been flowering since 1997 in the state, peaking from 2006 to 2008. Even this year, this species has flowered and we have collected its seeds. We have a plan to maintain certified stock of all the flowering years for the past 15 years so that model plantations can be raised in the state by mixing them up so that they flower at different times and thus minimize risks of gregarious flowering,” he said. The Centre had collected seeds of Muli and Pecha bamboo this year and (the zero year being taken as 2013) and has raised them in its nursery beds. The Livelihood Forestry Nursery established under the Centre has raised a nursery stock of bamboo mother plants of 19 valuable species with a total of 28,000 plants. About 10,000 mother plants have already been distributed to the owners of Community Livelihood Nurseries (CLNs) in six villages. These CLNs are expected to supply bamboo plants to various agencies by next year. Each CLN has a capacity to supply 2000 to 5000 bamboo plants per year. Kaushik said the program would establish100 small-scale homestead bamboo nurseries within a month from the present 60. Pawan K Kaushik, Regional Director, CFLE, said bamboos treated with a chemical formulation in machines have an extended life of 3 to 5 times. “A bamboo which is not treated will rot or become infested by termites or other insects in a year, but the treated bamboo will be free of pests for three to five years, thus adding to the life of furniture, fences and housing material become more durable if made of treated bamboo,” Kaushik said. “Those who have seen the demonstration of the machines are all demanding it so that they can use it. If used extensively, this will ease the pressure on cutting bamboo at frequent intervals,” Kaushik added. He said the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education in Dehradun, under which the Centre operates, patented the bamboo treatment machine. The machine was further modified by CFLE to make it efficient to treat six bamboos of two different sizes in one batch instead of three bamboos of single size. The Centre will give eight such machines to be managed by SHGs, NGOs or any other social group after signing a MoU. It will have to be returned in case of a dispute or if it is not used. In support of value addition through ICFRE-patented preservation techniques, 4 bamboo treatment machines have been distributed so far to SHGs selected in three village-clusters. Demonstrations of part and process of bamboo preservation have been given to the rural people and benefits out of that have been made known to them. The preservation of bamboos has both tangible and intangible benefits. The tangible benefits include avoidance of intermittent replacement of specimen, cost on material and labour involved therein, enhanced service life of treated material, availability and supply of raw material during lean period. These tangible benefits are crucial in poverty alleviation. While intangible benefits of bamboo preservation include increase in biomass and number of future plants, Carbon mitigation, check in soil erosion, increase in soil fertility, climate moderation and check in unscientific extraction due to pressure from market forces. “Research and their results could not be realized, until it reaches the end users and hence, CFLE has taken extensive initiatives to make the villagers aware of the ICFRE technologies through our field demonstration and community participation in ‘On-farm Research’”, said Kaushik. Agro forestry techniques developed under ICFRE have a potential scope in promotion of forest-based livelihoods in rural India. Considering this fact, CFLE has also established agroforestry trials in farmer’s fields for On-farm Participatory Research. These trials include upper-storey components as perennial pigeon pea (arhar), Banana, Moringa (sajna), Mangium, Bamboos. Melia dubia etc. intercropped with under storey crops like sugandhmantri, Kasturi bhindi, Flemingia, King chilli, broom grass, turmeric, peeper etc. in first phase. Tripura never had a successful experience in cultivation of ‘King Chili’ (Naga Chili), one of the world’s hottest chilies, but with On-farm efforts of the Centre, farmers of Melaghar and Bamutia clusters under West Tripura district now get maximum of 200 fruits of king chilies within three months from a single plant and which is sold in Agartala market for Rs. 5/- per piece, said Kaushik. At a time when bamboo resources are under degradation in Tripura and the current year’s royalty of bamboo decreased with a record 73 percent downslide, and in view of this the efforts of Centre for Forest-based Livelihoods and Extension, are quite on time to make the bamboo cultivation a profitable one to compete with rubber in the state. Kaushik said that ‘establishing homestead bamboo nurseries was a challenge to us, we motivated the villagers and successes are now coming’. 'Within next few years, Tripura’s bamboo production will expand with diversity through supply of bamboo plants from 100 small scale CLNs (Community Livelihood Nurseries) being established in two village clusters of Tripura. Poet Chandra Kanta Murasingh presents Rabindra Nath Tagore in 'Kokborok'  by Shekhar Dutta Nobel-laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore had been close friend and confidante of four generations of Tripua's Manikya dynasty kings-from Bir Chandra Manikya (1862-1896) to Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya (1923-1947). During his long and close association with Tripura's kings spanning over five decades, Tagore had visited princely Tripura seven times from 1900 to 1927 and was showered with royal bounties in many forms. But except penning a novel 'Rajarshi' and two dramas 'Mukut' and 'Visarjan' based on episodes of princely Tripura’s history , Tagore had no interaction with the state's indigenous people and their rich culture. But that has not stood in the way of Tripura's indigenous poets and authors studying and writing on Rabindra Nath Tagore's literature. Tripura's leading indigenous poet Chandra Kanta Murasingh (57) has translated all 157 poems or songs in Tagore's nobel winning 'Gitanjali' into indigenous 'Kokborok' language and the work is all set to be published by Viswa Bharati soon . Already the Hindi department of Calcutta’s premier Presidency University has published a volume of one hundred poems of Chandra Kanta, in Hindi translation. 'I have already translated at least twenty other poems of Tagore and they are also likely to form part of the volume being brought out by Viswa Bharati' said Chandra Kanta , now a Branch Manager of Tripura Gramin Bank (TGB). The very first winner of 'Sahitya Academy's 'Bhasa Samman' -award given by the Academy to poets and authors of non-scheduled language- in 1996 from northeast, Chandra Kanta Murasingh has already authored seven books of highly acclaimed 'Kokborok' poems. 'In five of the seven volumes I have provided Bengali translation of my original 'Kokborok' poems but two are in exclusively 'Kokborok' said Chandra Kanta. Anthologies of his poems based mostly on love and nature have been published by North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) and even Oxford University Press. In his eventful life Chandra Kanta has been a witness to a rapid and remarkable evolution of Tripura's socio-economic life from the pristinely pure existence as 'Jhumias' (shifting cultivators) eking a living out of hilly terrace cultivation to plainland cultivation with bulls, yokes and other traditional implements. 'I saw my own parents Shyamapada Murasingh (99)and mother Laxmidebi (90) engaged in shifting cultivation and helped them as a boy ; the lights and shades of nature , the cascading sound of the hill springs, heavy monsoon rains and chirping of birds that I saw and listened in my boyhood in my ancestral village Twiwandal (water and forest of a variety of Tripura's bamboo in Kokborok meaning) in Sonamura subdivision are still indelibly imprinted in my mind’ said Chandra Kanta. It was at his father's initiative that Chandra Kanta had studied at a school in Mirza area in Udaipur subdivision and finally in Ramesh school of Udaipur- much to the consternation of the traditional village chief who was opposed to village boys and girls going outside for education. 'I had initially joined the Post and Telegraph department and been posted in Manipur ; alone there I made a detailed study of works of stalwarts of Bengali literature but in 1984 I joined the Tripura Gramin Bank' said Chandra Kanta.  He is now absorbed in creating a 'grammar' for learning Tripura's rich indigenous folk songs by devising notations. 'Our rich folk songs are endowed with poetic beauty but they have come to us by oral tradition and are sung with such indigenous instruments as 'Sarinda' and 'Chompreng' ; I have made progress in devising the musical notation and once the task is complete our folk songs can be recorded and easily learned' said Chandra Kanta. A pristinely poetic soul trying to bring together different strands of 'Kokborok' spoken and written in Tripura, Cachar and Chittagong hills of Bangladesh, Chandra Kanta's lone regret is that modern generation of indigenous youths are no longer interested in writing 'Kokborok' language. And he turns truly nostalgic while recalling his childhood in the lap of pristine nature in his quiet ancestral village.