Amongst giant arborescent grass bamboo is the only versatile member containing lignocellulosic materials like wood. Therefore it offers almost parallel uses where wood is traditionally an established material. The wood scarcity, environmental role of our natural forests, longer rotation cycle of plantation species, ban in felling, the ever growing utilization demands of wood to the tune of 3.2 million tones and its abundant use even as fuel and complex R&D technologies related problems like growth stresses, drying stresses, refractoriness in treatments are several interacting factors in the field of wood utilization. However, bamboo is a relatively simplified material in comparison to wood. Therefore, developmental work in bamboo processing is much easier and simpler in comparison to wood. The treatment of bamboo is much simpler than the treatment of wood in the form of poles provided appropriate technologies are developed. Bamboo species are perishable regardless of prevailing beliefs, regarding its durability amongst traditional societies. More so one rainy season any where in the country or round the year high humidity zones in costal areas and Northeast are suitable grounds of severe sapstains or borer attacks in its products in case adequate treatments are not done. The present paper highlights this aspect and describes the developmental work at FRI. Boucherie process of treating green bamboo is well known. Further progressive work was done at FRI and a number of processes were developed for treating bamboo in green/dry, split and round form. However the latest breakthrough is achieved in treatment of bamboo and this new approach is much faster and more efficient while maintaining the economics of the treatment well within the reach to entrepreneurs one such a process VAC-FRI. D. strictus, B. nutans, B. arundinacea, B. balcooa and B. gigantius, species, known for structural and other uses were treated with 4% Borax: Boric acid by Boucherie, VAC-FRI, wick and diffusion processes. Natural durability and performance after treatment was evaluated under shade and ground contact. Results revealed that new process VAC-FRI is comparable to all other known conventional process.

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