World Bamboo Day

The World Bamboo Day is celebrated to create awareness about the importance of bamboo as a versatile material for sustainable lifestyle. Bamboo is part of rural livelihood in many countries, especially in developing counties like India. Due to its versatile nature and multiple uses, it is also called ‘poor man’s timber’. India is second only to China in terms of bamboo diversity. The North-Eastern States are a storehouse of bamboo diversity. Bamboo is grown on 10 million hectares in India and covers almost 13 per cent of the total forest area. The total production of bamboo is five million tonnes per year. About 8.6 million people depend on bamboo for their livelihood. The value of bamboo in India is estimated at $4.4 billion.