Bamboo House India (BHI) is on a twin mission: making bamboo an economic driver and an eco-friendly substitute to wood, steel, iron & plastic. Shradha Mohanty reports.
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Sprawling across the wetlands and hills, oblivious of heat and rain, there grows a golden grass. So tall people mistake it for a tree.
But a grass it is. And what a hero among the species!
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A Bouquet of Reasons to Love Bamboo:
• It’s renewable
• Grows fast: Some species of bamboo grow more than three feet each day! No plant on the planet features a faster growth rate.
• Grows without fuss: When harvested, bamboo will grow a new shoot from its extensive root system with no need for additional planting or cultivation.
• Absorbs greenhouse gases, minimizes CO2 gases and generates up to 35 per cent more oxygen then equivalent stand of trees.
• Doesn’t create waste: almost every part of the plant can be used to make something
• It’s versatile: paper, flooring, furniture, charcoal, building materials and much more can be made from bamboo.
• It’s strong: bamboo fibers are far stronger than wood fibers and much less likely to warp from changing atmospheric conditions.
• Protects the soil: Bamboo roots remain in place after harvesting, and help retain nutrients for the next crop.
• Creates job opportunities: The market potential of bamboo is estimated to be Rs 26000 crores by 2015 and if tapped in a proper way bamboo can help more than 5 million of our population cross the poverty line.
• Grows almost anywhere: From low wetlands to higher elevations in the mountains, bamboo thrives in a wide range of climates.
• Can be harvested annually
• Helps mitigate water pollution due to its high nitrogen consumption
How many of us know, or care to know what bamboo can do?
Happily for us, two people did.
The idea germinated quite by chance. Sometime in 2007, Prashant Lingam and Aruna Kappagantula went looking for eco-friendly furniture,
and stumbled upon bamboo.
“It fascinated us,” they say.
For the next whole year, they roamed the country, scouting forests, researching bamboo, and learning—to their dismay—of the pathetic conditions under which bamboo artisans were living.
During their sojourn, Prashant and Aruna also realized why the bamboo industry was wilting: The Indian Forest Act 1927 classifies bamboo as a tree and not grass, thus imposing several restrictions on the harvesting and trading of the crop. Someone had to take up the cause of this wonder grass.
Their mind was made up. And once their study tour was complete, Bamboo House of India was born.
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Today, Bamboo House of India has approximately 500 rural and tribal community members working with them. A new artisan trained under BHI can expect to earn upto Rs 6,000 per month. Master artisans make `5,000 a month. The journey that began from the village of Katlamara in Tripura has now reached 50-60 villages nationwide.
At the same time, Prashant and Aruna are addressing the bigger issues, such as creating marketable products, improving market linkages and fighting regulatory constraints.
How BHI Works
Until BHI came along, the bamboo industry was made up of
small artisans with production constraints and medium enterprises with minimal infrastructure, which remained in the nonprofit domain. “BHI is not an NGO,” says Aruna. “We are a for-profit social enterprise with scaling potential.”
Their business model focuses on triple bottom lines:
• Environmental
• Social
• Financial
Their customer base includes:
• Rural housing institutions
• Corporate clients
• Public sector organizations
• Educational institutions
• Community facilities
• Real estate
• Eco-tourism
• Resorts, hotels, food joints and cafes
The picture is encouraging. “With so many people becoming environment conscious, and the market overflowing with Chinese and routine leather furniture, there’s a huge scope for bamboo,” says Aruna. “Once the customer learns about the multiple benefits of buying bamboo furniture, he is very unlikely to reject the offer,” she adds.
There are challenges aplenty, of course. “Even if bamboo is planted in private lands, a transfer permit from the State forest department is compulsory to shift the raw material from the plantation site to any other location,” says Prashant. “BHI works with rural and tribal artisans in the bamboo sector in locations totally cut off from electricity, telecommunication, roads and every basic facility conducive for business.”
“Developing a business model keeping all the partner agencies’ mandate intact, makes it all the more complex, but we have managed to do it,” says Aruna.
They have not yet broken even, but hope to do so this year.
Building with bamboo
Working with IIT(Delhi), BHI has come up with a bamboo housing structure that can manage a load of approximately one ton on the roof. The pillars are also made of bamboo. It is cost effective
@ Rs 175 per square foot.
In Hyderabad, an entire showroom has been built using natural building materials like thatch, bamboo, palm leaves, cow dung and mud. This is a great way to showcase the practicability and beauty of natural building materials in construction.
Bamboo tree guards and bus shelters project bamboo as an alternative building material to iron and plastic.
Organizations working with BHI
- Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
- Andhra Pradesh Promotion and development centre (APTDC)
- National Mission on Bamboo Application (NMBA)
- Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D)
- Tripura Bamboo Mission (TBM)
- Infra Leasing and Financial services (ILFS)
- Andhra Pradesh Forest Department (APFD)
Future growth
BHI is striving to create a chain of exclusive bamboo showrooms across the country, which will promote and market all bamboo based products under one roof, from a bamboo pen to bamboo housing structures.
As Victor Hugo said,” There is nothing like a dream to create the future.” And, that’s exactly what BHI is doing. ….creating a wonderful future for us.
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