Action Research Projects: India

In India INBAR runs three Action Research Projects, one in Tamenglong district, Manipur State, one in Tripura State (both in the northeast) and one in Uttaranchal State. The projects encompass the whole range of technical and enabling environment options that are required to sustainably use bamboo and rattan for development. They involve considerable contributions from each State and the National Governments.

India has the second largest resources of bamboo in the world. Over one third of the nation live in poverty and with a high proportion in rural areas. Many of these people live in close association with significant bamboo resources, but these are often at best underutilised, or at worst destroyed to make way for other crops. This is most noticeably prevalent in the Northeastern States including Manipur and Tripura where poverty is rife. Little effective poverty alleviation has occured in the past and social insurgency against government activities continues. A vicous cycle prevails of a lack of suitable environment on which to build poverty alleviation leading to increasing unhappiness and social unrest, which in turn reduces the suitability of the environment of the region for investment and development. Bamboo is abundant in the Northeast but has not been used for poverty allevialtion thus far.

The recently-formed mountainous State of Uttaranchal to the north of Delhi, has pressing needs for environmental conservation and poverty alleviation, and is looking to fashion itself as a tourist destination. For all of this, bamboo is ideal.

With the support of the State Governments of Manipur, Tripura and Uttaranchal, and with funding from the Union Goverment of India, our projects build upon the inherent bamboo processing abilities of the peoples in these areas and focus on:

Skills development
Enterprise development
Infrastructure development
Markets and marketing
Improving access to finance
Developing sustainable resource base
Awareness raising
Information dissemination, extension and networking

Supportive activities have included INBAR-UNIDO Policy Workshops for NE India, the establishment of the Centre for Indian Bamboo and Rattan Technologies (CIBART), the Indian Government's Bamboo Mission, and technological support from the Indian Plywood Research and Training Institute (IPIRTI) and the National Institute of Design (NID).

Each of the Northeast projects have been running since 2002 and the Uttaranchal project commenced in 2003. With the enthusiastic involvement of the communities and individuals in the projects, each is already showing solid results.