India is the largest and richest repository of bamboo resources. This woody, perennial grass covers over 12 per cent of the forested area in the country. The area under bamboo cultivation accounts for a little over 15 million hectares. Nearly 8.6 million people depend on bamboo resources for their livelihood. But it mainly remains the base material for cottage industry, handicrafts, paper and pulp factories and a source of biomass. Much of its potential as a substitute for wood and steel in construction, furniture and domestic applications remains untapped.
IPIRTI
The Bengaluru-based Indian Plywood Industries Research and Training Institute (IPIRTI) under the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, has been focusing on developing technologies whereby bamboo could be an effective substitute for wood and other materials in construction and household utilities. Invariably all low income households in the north-eastern states - which produce 65% of India’s bamboo - use bamboo for pillars, rafters, and beams, as supporting material for roofs and as mats which become partition panels.
The basic framework for charpoys, shelves, racks and ladders is bamboo all across the north-east. Elsewhere it has been the mainstay of scaffoldings during construction. However, this is bamboo in its natural state, without much scope for technological upgradation. Even while it has been known to be fast-growing, eco-friendly and cost-effective, it was never thought of as a replacement for lumber for high-end products for modern-day drawing rooms.
Overlooked
Known as ‘poor man’s timber,’ bamboo may be the most useful material ever to be overlooked. The fact that bamboo had greater tensile strength (or resistance to being pulled apart) than steel, mechanical as well as engineering properties and was amenable to chemical processing, provided impetus to research in turning it into a composite on par with other materials. Over the last few decades, IPIRTI’s efforts in this direction have borne fruit.
Says B.N. Mohanty, Director, IPIRTI, thanks to its research and dissemination, three generations of products can now be seen in the Indian market. The researches were instrumental for developing bamboo mat-based products such as Bamboo Mat Board (BMB) and Bamboo Mat Corrugated Sheets (BMCS) in the first generation. Second generation products were strip-based such as bamboo horizontal and vertical laminates. These sheets, with cross-positioned strips, when pressed together with industrial resins seal tighter than conventional insulation.
Finally, it has come up with bamboo lumber-based products which could be cut and seasoned as lumber. Besides being waterproof, they can resist fungal and microbe attack and can even be made fire-resistant.
Multiple uses
While bamboo mats could be used as panels or for cladding, the basic material could also be moulded into trays or bowls. Corrugated sheets are capable of being deployed as a substitute for asbestos sheets and are quite capable of withstanding monkey jump or fall of coconuts. Being a bad conductor of heat, they ensure cooler interiors during summer and could keep the rooms warmer during winters. Being lighter, they carry the additional quality of being quake-resistant.
This is not all. Scientists say it is capable of withstanding compression better than concrete. It is these qualities that keep the bamboo plant (which grows even to the height of 60 feet and surprisingly with same width all across) from falling over.
Storms can bend it without breaking it. Chinese scientists who were the first to realise this, have used it for developing wings of wind turbines and even tunnels, ducts and pipes, of course, after due chemical treatment. The wind turbines with bamboo wings can push 14% more air than steel wings.
Reed bamboo
Mr. Mohanty feels Kerala has shown the path to be treaded by other States when it comes to industrialisation of bamboo. The State, accounting for nearly seven per cent of the total bamboo production in India, has set up industries for value-added products such as bamboo board, bamboo ply and flooring tiles.
While Bambusa bamboo and Dendrocalamus strictus are the two most grown varieties of bamboo in India, Kerala has a third variety called Ochlandra travancorica or Reed Bamboo which grows alongise waterbodies. It is said to be a soil binder.
With sustainability being the buzzword with the looming threat of climate change, bamboo comes as a viable sustainable resource with fast propagation capacity.