Bamboo from Nagpur going beyond Oranges

Which city comes to one’s mind when we debate about oranges. You are correct, we are talking about Nagpur. But hold on, I am not going to talk anything about that orange stuff here, but it is the Bamboo crafts in the area that has shaped it big too. Lying in the Vidarbha region of India, which is acclaimed for the rampant suicides by farmers, lies a jewel in itself, Nagpur.

Nagpur is a burgeoning city, with huge industrial setups , big malls and shopping complexes and hold on a newly built up Cricket Ground that has been the centre of attraction for quite sometime now owing to a series of International One-Days, Test and 20-20 cricket matches being played here. But, I am not going to talk about them atleast for now. Well, if you see the geographical setup of nagpur, you would yourself agree to the rich resources that it encompass.

Lying close to the borders of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and not too far Andhra Pradesh, the whole area is a dense patch of forests, a few of the national parks are also a part of these. Two main varieties of Bamboo vis-a-vis Oxytenanthera Stocksii & Dendrocalamus Strictus are abundantly available in the area. These varieties of bamboo are perhaps one of the best varieties that can be put to use for furniture making purposes.

Call it the curse of using "Poor Man's Timber" or lack of awareness, we still do not have people putting the adequate use of this species. They mostly find themselves being put to use in a paper industry, who have no other means but to use Bamboo. Still a handful of organisations are making Bamboo Furnitures in the area .

The problem faced by these organisations are again the marketability . Compared to other places where Bamboo work is undertaken, Nagpur has an advantage in terms of it's proximity to Mumbai and Indore. The artisan skill set is good and a lot of people in the adjoining villages of Nagpur are involved in some or the other activity related to Bamboo. The nodal agency i.e. NMBA has undertaken quite a few artisan training activities in the area.

As far as Bamboo crafts and Furniture business is concerned, I am fairly confident that Nagpur will be a big driver as lots of eco resorts and eco housing are coming up along the konkan coast and hence, the demand is surely going to rise up.