An Exciting Field Trip in Understanding Bamboo Processing and Agarwood Plantation in Tripura

Photo copyright: Satyabrata Maiti 

I landed in Agartala on 23-Aug-2023 at about 2:30 pm to attend a Roundtable discussion on forest project organized by the Forest Department of Tripura.   The CM of Tripura, Dr. Manik Saha inaugurated the meeting in the evening at Polo hotel followed by dinner. It was organised to showcase the opportunities available in the forest sector to the various industries for developing and setting up industries in the value chain links of Bamboo, Agarwood and other NTFP sectors integrating the forest landscape in such a way that sustainable supply chain of resources of these commodities remain unaffected.

Oxygen Park

On 24-Aug-2023, in the morning we were taken to Oxygen park. The roundtable discussion was chaired by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Principal Secretary Forest, I &C and S & T, Mr. K. S. Sethi. Industrialists of the various sectors were given an opportunity to express their expectations from the Govt, if they decide to set up either sourcing of resources or production units at Tripura. Meeting ended at about 8:00 pm.

On 25-Aug-2023, we were taken to Kumarghat and Kadamtala to show us Bamboo based small scale industries setup for Agarbatti and charcoal manufacturing unites, food preservation unit and also Agarwood plantation at Kadamtala.

Agartala Railway Station

Our journey started from Agartala railway station. The station has got a face lift under HIRA (H for highway, I for Internet way, R for railways and A for Airways) Model of the Prime Minister of India. Today, based on the HIRA Model, Tripura is improving and expanding its connectivity which we could sense throughout the state wherever we visited.

Agartala Railway Station

We reached the station by 5:45 am and boarded 12097 Agartala-Khongsang Jan Satabdi Express train which had EV-Vistadome AC coach in which we all were accommodated. The coach had its uniqueness  in the form of viewer’s gallery at the tail end that made our journey enjoyable. The train left the station at 6:00 am. The  viewer’s gallery was so mesmerising that I could travel 2:30 hours standing on the gallery and watching nature and its changing land scape form Urban to rural; tea garden, betel nut plantation, carpet of green rice fields, ponds, rivers, and all kinds of greenery.

Carpet of green rice fields

Photographs of field trip participants

Of course, I was also busy in capturing some of those in my camera and also capturing the photos of the delegates on request. The train had one stop in between at Ambasa station at 7:10 am and we reached Darmanagar by 8:40 am. We were taken to Circuit house for a brief stopover for breakfast.  We left left for Kumarghat Industrial area to see Bamboo processing units which was about 27 km and took about 35 min.

Dharmanagar Station

Bamboo:  Bamboo is one of the important natural resources of Tripura. The state sustains tropical moist deciduous forests with patches of forests of evergreen species and a significant area under bamboo.   Nineteen species of bamboos are commonly found in the State (source: Forest Dept. Tripura). The extent of bamboo bearing area in the forests of the state is about 3,246 km².

Bamboo plantation

Bamboo is used for various purposes:

1. Rural Housing: posts, walls, roof structure, roofing material, scaffolding, fencing and gates (Bari, Barak, Muli, Makal)
2. Agricultural implements, baskets, food grain containers, rain shields, head gear and other functional products
3. Handicraft items: toys, ‘morra’, winnowing trays, handfans, mats (Muli, Paora and Mritinga), wall panels, screens (Mritinga, makal), umbrella handles (Muli), fishing rods (Kanak kaich), agarbatti sticks (Paora, Dolu, Barak)
4. Edible shoots for food, particularly amongst tribal communities
5. Raw material for paper mill.

Bamboo shoot processing

After reaching there, we first visited a food processing unit of pineapple. This unit has recently got an order for supply of canned Bamboo shoot. We went through their various stages bamboo shoot processing.

Journey from Bamboo to Agarbatti

Charcoal making from the bamboo waste 

Thereafter, we went to Bamboo processing units for Agarbatti and other products, such as charcoal, bamboo dust, etc. After visiting two to three unites we assembled in a “Shamina” covered place for discussion with the village workers and  JFMC personnel. A very fruitful discussion and feedback information were gathered by all the participants.

Group discussion with the Agarbatti workers and villagers

Ms Deepa D Nair, IFS and Ms Vishwasree, B, IAS 

My Observations:

While discussing with the unit owners, I find that supply of Bamboo used is agarbatti stick making is coming from about 100 km away for the boarder of other states. Therefore, production cost can be substantially reduced if captive cultivation is ensured about 50 km radius of the production units as done by the sugarcane factories.

If small machines are given to the villagers with ensured power supply, productivity will increase many fold since they can manage their family responsibilities as well as the production by getting help from other members of the family. Final processing can be done in the established units in model of assembly unit in cottage industry.

There is possibility of harvesting “Bansalochan”- a silica,  having  a high demand in the Ayurveda industry,  deposited inside the bamboo at the node. While splitting the bamboo for stick making, a trained eye can look for it. A lot of observations are required in this process.

We left for Lunch form there to circuit house again.

After lunch we had a presentation by Mr Pravin L Agarwal, IFS, Additional PCCF and Chief Wildlife Warden, Tripura on Agarwood cultivation and its various usages as well as its future prospects in Tripura.

Agarwood plantation

Agarwood : Agarwood tree (Aquilaria malaccensis) and some other species are cultivated on large scale in  the North East. Tripura has also a sizeable population of this plant and recently cultivated in private land.   Tripura Forest Department has taken up this plant very seriously and motivating the private growers by providing technical inputs and knowledge. Tripura government has an ambitious plan  to export 1,500 kg of Agar oil and 75,000 kg of Agar chips in the year to come.

Currently, there are over 50 lakh agar trees in the state. Tripura government has also launched a draft  “Tripura Agar Wood Policy 2021” and a target has been set up for  doubling the plantation by the year 2025. Agarwood oil has many usages, mainly in cosmetics, essence, flavour and pharmaceuticals industries.

We reached Kadamtala a bit late and there was rain on the way. Distance between Dharmanagar and Kadamtala is about 12.5 km. We could visit a few plantations.

 My Observations:

I find that first and foremost hurdle to overcome in this species is standardization of artificial inculcation by fungus. Many pure-culture strains of fungi isolated from natural Agarwood were found to be effective biological agents to induce Agarwood formation in healthy Aquilaria trees (Cui et al., 2013; Siburian et al., 2015; Sangareswari Nagajothi et al., 2016).

The findings showed that F3 inoculant (a combination of Trichoderma sp., Lasiodiplodia sp. and Curvularia sp.) was the most potential fungal inoculant for Agarwood formation based on the darkest colour and largest mean length of the infected zone, after a three and six months’ inoculation periods in both wet and dry seasons. Another research conducted by University Malaysia Pahang (UMP) has showed that nano-Inoculant developed based on effective microorganism (EM) technology with the scientific formulation in a bioreactor could  produce grade “A”  Agarwood as early as six months after the inoculation period on the farm. Nano-inoculant also can reduce the harvesting age of the plant. These type of technological intervention is required if Tripura has to leave a foot print for the export of Agarwood oil.

I could also find that plantations were overpopulated hence the girth of the plants were thin. We also visited one distillation and chip making unit with their sale counter.  I find lack of any standard by which the price can be fixed. Now, what is going on is arbitrary price fixation. This needs a thorough investigation and scientific foundation for defining quality with measurable parameters.

We reached back to Darmanagar station by 7:00 pm and the train was about 15 min late and we reached Agartala by 10:30 pm and my hotel by 11:15 pm.

Jai Hind!

Satyabrata Maiti 

Disclaimer: Whatever my observations expressed in the blog require scientific verification before coming to a final conclusion.

Acknowledgement:

1. Shri K. S. Sethi, IFS, PCCF, HoFF, Principal Secretary Forest, I&C and S &T and his team for the arrangement of roundtable discussion and generous hospitality
2. Ms Vishwasree, B, IAS, Director, Industries and Commerce for offering her valuable time in accompanying us in the field trip
3. Ms Deepa D Nair, IFS, CCF for giving her valuable time in accompanying us in the field visit
4. Dr. Wangdup Bhutia, IFS for his willing support in providing some of the information included in this blog
5. A battery of IFS officers accompanied us for various logistic supports      

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