Why Bamboo?
Bamboo is a versatile resource and a gift of nature. From poor man’s timber to rich man’s green gold, bamboo is truly the ‘cradle to coffin timber’ for the people of various strata and geographies. Bamboo has thousands of well documented applications in daily lives and hence people also call it by different names such as ‘green gold’, ‘poor man’s timber’, ‘rich man’s delicacy’, ‘material of the future’, ‘friend of the people’ and ‘cradle to coffin timber’.
Following are some of the key facts which makes bamboo a critically important resource of the 21st century:
- Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants in the world. It can grow up to one meter a day.
- There are more than 1400 bamboo species on earth. Bamboo grows on every continent except Antarctica.
- Unlike other cash crops, bamboo does not require any fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides to thrive
- A grove of bamboo release 35% more oxygen than an equivalent stand of hardwood trees.
- Bamboo is one of the strongest building materials with a tensile strength of 28,000 psi versus 23,000 psi for steel.
- Bamboo is a viable replacement for wood. It can be harvested in 3-5 years versus 10-20 years for most softwood.
- Bamboo was the first plant to re-green after the atomic blast in Hiroshima in 1945.
- Thomas Edison’s first successful light bulb used a filament made of carbonized bamboo. One of those bulbs is still burning today at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC.
- There are over 1500 documented uses for bamboo, which include flooring, furniture, musical instruments, crafts, sports equipment, food, medicinal uses, and textiles.
- Nothing goes waste in bamboo as every part of the plant can be utilized in some or the other way.
- Bamboo forests provide both home and food to variety of different animals and endangered species like Giant Panda.
- Bamboo promotes sustainable development, livelihoods and employment opportunities in the areas that desperately need social and economic stability.
