New Delhi: India is going to pitch for charcoal extracted from bamboo at the ongoing 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) to United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, according to a report by the Hindustan Times.The report said that the tribal affairs ministry is working on a model where over 100 units across the country will work on extracting coal in this manner.
“This is an environment-friendly proposal which does not require heavy investments, and will promote tribal enterprise. Charcoal extracted from bamboo does not have carbon credits, making it a highly-productive alternative to industrial coal,” said Pravir Krishna, managing director, Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED).
These units will employ about 500,000 people from the tribal communities.
According to the HT report, work on setting up of these units is going on in the seven northeast states as well as Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha under the Van Dhan scheme -- an initiative of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and TRIFED, which seeks to improve tribal incomes through value addition of tribal products.
Work on these units will start sometime in October.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the COP14 conference on Monday. Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar were also present at the event.