Diversity, Threats and Conservation Aspects of Bamboo: A Review on Green Gold

Abstract

Bamboo, commonly known as “Green Gold” or “Poor Men’s Timber,” is an arborescent grass belonging to the Poaceae family. It is continuously gaining attention due to its diverse life forms, flowering patterns, and multipurpose utilities. Bamboos are cosmopolitan in distribution, widely adaptable, and growing naturally in Asia’s tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions. India is the second richest country regarding species diversity (136), most of which are found in the northeast region and the Western Ghats, along with endemism. Over the past few years, bamboo has been on the verge of being swept due to multiple threats. Overexploitation coupled with limited measures to replenish resources has resulted in shrinking the natural bamboo resource base, necessitating bamboo conservation in forest and non-forest areas. What matters most is that resources must be conserved sustainably without compromising utility. For efficient utilization of bamboo, different propagation techniques and strategies, viz. tissue culture, bamboosetum, seed orchards, multilocation trials, seed cryopreservation, and bamboo-based agroforestry can be improvised with the motive of conserving bamboo resources.