KALAIGAON, Aug 4 � The Energy Resources Institute (TERI), Northeast Regional Centre, Guwahati has launched a hybrid bamboo plantation scheme at Kalaigaon Sevashram in Udalguri district. Deepankar Saharia, son of former Education Minister of Assam late Ramesh Saharia, and present coordinator, TERI, formally launched the plantation programme recently.
Addressing a press meet at the site of the plantation, Saharia said that TERI, NE Regional Centre, was established at Chachal, Guwahati in 1993. Since then it has been working for the promotion of modern and systemic farming, cultivation and plantation in NE States. Major services offered were technological support and implementation of natural resource management projects; potential quantification and energy resource assessment studies; development of micro propagation protocols and supply of quality planting material; technology assessment and preparation of detailed project reports; techno-economic feasibility, monitoring and impact assessment studies; evaluation of projects and training and capacity building.
Saharia stated that the people of the State had nearly stopped cultivation of species like banana,orange, pepper and bamboo, thereby causing untold harm to both economy and ecology. He requested the people to give importance to agriculture and horticulture. He also said that paper mills in the NE have been facing a tough time due to insufficient plantation of bamboo. Talking to media persons, he said that a plot of 50 bighas (seven hectares) has been made available by Kalaigaon Sevashram Trust for bamboo plantation on which TERI planted 2,800 hybrid (Dendrocalamas asper) saplings.
The Kalaigaon Sevashram Trust was established in 1950 by noted Gandhian leader and freedom fighter late Pani Ram Das. A plot of land measuring 50 bighas had been donated by freedom fighter Das while he was alive for the Kanak Lata Das Biodiversity Conservation Park at Kalaigaon. And now TERI, NE region, has come forward to make his dream come true.
