Over the last few years, the bamboo policy in India has undergone a major change. The
national bamboo development programme has been restructured with a shift in priority from
restoring bamboo forests to promoting farm bamboo and developing its market linkage. This
programme earlier with the environment ministry, is now housed in the agriculture ministry.
The Indian Forest Act 1927 has also been amended to free the production, harvest and trade
of farm-bamboo. The implicit assumption here is that the vast domestic market and industrial …