THE BAMBOO does not get as much importance as it should get. There was a beautiful song – ’Number fifty-four, the house with the bamboo door, bamboo roof and bamboo walls, they’ve even got a bamboo floor!’ We talk about the other side of the bamboo curtain in whispers. In certain parts of our country, bamboo is used extensively for making furniture and thin strips of the bamboos are woven into baskets. When lined with sal leaves, these baskets are converted into wonderful eco-friendly receptacles to carry home piping hot singaras and jilebis. Once discarded after use, these are gobbled up by stray goats and cows without them suffering any ill effects. The bamboo is an immovable part of any construction work. Not just for houses but also for puja pandals. However, we have never realised its true potentials till now.

An agricultural scientist has done research on this common everyday bamboo plant and has come up with startling results. In his opinion, the bamboo acts as a carbon sink and absorbs excess carbon dioxide, thereby, reducing global warming. Therefore, the more bamboos we plant, the more we help in reducing the threats of global warming.

This gentleman feels that bamboo can be put to many uses, for example – it can effectively clean water pollution from septic tanks and factory effluents as it has a natural affinity for nitrogen, phosphorous and heavy metals.

He has developed a specific variety of bamboo, which is sterile and therefore does not produce seeds. It can live up to 200 years provided it gets water, sunlight and nutrients from soil regularly. Planting this at one’s home or garden will benefit generations to come, he said. The scientist has even calculated as to how many bamboo plants Chennai needs to become carbon neutral, that is, to absorb excess carbon dioxide in the air generated by the city’s population. "The city needs around 13 million bamboo plants to become carbon neutral," he said.

His assumptions are: the city has a population of about one crore, including its floating population. Multiply this with the per capita emission in Indian cities (assumed as 1.33 tonnes by him). This works out to 13 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. One mature bamboo plant can absorb 500 kg (0.5 tonnes) of this gas. Assuming 50 per cent of the gas is absorbed by the existing canopy, the balance 6.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide would need 13 million bamboo plants for complete absorption. He plans to pursue the case and try to insist on the administration of Chennai to do the needful so that he can plant the saplings all over the city and show the way for a better future to the citizens of Chennai. This can then be emulated by other cities. His thinking is a revolutionary one no doubt and can be replicated in other cities. In fact, it could be considered as a subject to be pursued vigorously for ’Vision 2067’.