Bamboo: A poor man’s timber

IRG/WP 15-10852

S Kumar

Bamboo, known as poor man’s timber in the past gained some importance in the last decade when TIFAC under Department of Science & Technology and Ministry of Agriculture awoke to find a better future for this unique gift of nature. Until then it was considered a good for nothing grass suitable only for making paper and building effigies of Ravan, Kumbhkaran and Meghnath year after year at Dussehra festival. Bamboos played a vital role in rural and tribal areas, where modern materials like bricks, steel, and cement were not available/(affordable). No wonder Late Dr. A. Purushotham accepted the Challenge and undertook pioneering research on treatment of bamboo for improving its durability and enhancing fire resistance to enable poor villagers and tribes residing in remote areas build durable hutments. He erected several structures using bamboo and mud during 1950s, some of which are surviving even today without much maintenance. These results were highlighted during several presentations in seminars/ workshops organized under Indra Awaas Yojna of the Govt. of India but found no response despite the fact that this was the only available technology which could fit into the budget of this mass housing scheme in rural and tribal areas. Today we find bamboo in its new Avtaar. The credit for this goes to National Mission for Bamboo Applications (NMBA) under TIFAC. NMBA made good initial efforts to promote preservative treatment of Bamboo by providing soft loans/grant-in-aid to several bamboo processors around the country. The initial enthusiasm however proved to an air bubble and focus changed to high end products with the change in top profile of NMBA. Many building products like Medium Density Fiber boards, Flooring tiles, Bamboo ply, Corrugated roofing sheets (to name a few) have been developed. Whereas properly treated solid or split bamboo has no equal, bamboo composites have yet to establish there reliability for durability and integrity. In a country, where wood based composites are faring so badly, it will be doubtful if bamboo based composites costing more than their wood based counterparts would perform any better. Our Architects and Engineers have little exposure to wood/bamboo as a building material in their academic pursuit. We really do not have any Timber Engineer in the country and even research in Timber Engineering in FRI is limping. Nevertheless a number of elegant structures coming up around the country prove high versatility of bamboo as a material. Will they match the elegance of our poor bamboo hut smiling in FRI Wood Preservation Plant premises? Certainly not! If bamboo composites become a hit, there will be a bamboo shortage hiking its price so that no bamboo will be available at economical costs to even bamboo handicraft units taking away employment of many poor bamboo processors in small scale and tiny sectors. To upgrade bamboo to meet potential of higher end use, we must ensure supply by raising more plantations.


Keywords: bamboo protection, low cost rural houses, bamboo composites, bamboo handicrafts

Conference: 15-05-10/14 Vina del Mar, Chile


Download document (3.6 Mb)
free for the members of IRG. Available if purchased.

Purchase this document