Published on December 14, 2009
Jarpum Gamlin
Chessa is a non-descriptive small town along the Rajgarh Road that could have remained an unknown place if not for the State Forest Research Institute (SFRI). Initially, set up in 1982 as Van Vigyan Kendra it was renamed SFRI a year later.
The significance of the SFRI in a State like Arunachal Pradesh lies in the fact that the State boasts of as many as 73 bamboo species. It is 27 years since the SFRI was established and it is today house to 54 different species of bamboo from India and abroad. Research work on bamboos from Kerala, Uttrakhand and other states of India has been done here, besides study of bamboo from countries like Colombia, China and Thailand. Today, largely SFRI works are confined to two divisions: forest genetic and systematic botany and some other important field works in disciplines like soil science, ecology, zoology, orchid, etc. No wonder that scientists from different parts of India and abroad visit SFRI for consultative works.
In spite of ‘first mover advantage’ in bamboo research, Arunachal may have failed in integrating with farming, application and marketing. Not only in India, the world over, states like Nagaland, Manipur, Assam and Tripura have taken the lead in cultivating bamboo and its commercial applications. Research estimated the commercial bamboo market to be US $10 billion and projects the market to be of US $ 20 billion by 2015. Closer home, current Indian bamboo market size is estimated to be not less than Rs 6500 crore. Projection for 2015 is as huge as Rs 26,000 crore.
Institutes like SFRI can help in identifying commercially viable bamboo species and climatic conditions to grow them. People in the know of Bamboo industry are of the opinion that SFRI is a pioneering institute and if requisite systemic support is provided, in next 5-10 years it could become the economic change agent for the State without disturbing Mother Nature, not hydropower project, as many would like to believe.
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