Bamboo Policy of North East

MEGHALAYA AT A GLANCE

Location:

Meghalaya is located in the north eastern part of the country, and lies between 85.49° and 92.52° East Longitude and between 20.1° and 26.5° N Latitude. It has an area of 22429 Sq. Km. The capital is the hill town of Shillong , Meghalaya - literally meaning “Abode of (alaya) of the clous (megh) – occupies a mountainous plateau of great scenic beauty. This name was coined by the great Indian geographer, S.P. Chatterjee. Meghalaya was created under the Assam Reorganisation (Meghalaya Act, 1969 and inaugurated on April 2,1970 and attained the statehood on January 21, 1972.

The landlocked Meghalaya is bounded on the north by Goalpara,Kamrup and Karbianglong districts of Assam , on the east by the districts of Cachar and North Cachar Hills and on the south and west by Bangladesh .

Physiography:

Meghalaya is an upland area formed by a block detached from the Deccan Plateau. The rocks and geological structure resemble the Chota Nagpur region of Bihar and Bengal . Shillong the capital of Meghalaya is situated in the centre of the plateau. It has been called the Scotland of the east. The highest peak in the state is the Shillong Peak the highest of which 1965 m above the sea level. The Khasi Hills and the Jaintia Hills which form the central and eastern part of Meghalaya is in imposing plateau with rolling grassland, hills and river valleys. The Garo Hills in the west rise abruptly from the Brahmaputra Valley to about 305 m and then merge with the Khasi Hills and the Jaintia Hills to form the single table land. The southern face of this plateau is marked by deep gorges and abrupt slopes, at the foot of which a narrow strip of plain land runs along the international Border with Bangladesh. A number of rivers the most important is the Umiam-Barapani, which is the major source of hydro electric power. None of the rivers are navigable yet draining the mountaneous state.

Climate:

Considering the temperature, pressure, and humidity conditions in their temporal distribution, the climatic condition of Meghalaya in a year can be divided into the following four seasons:

i) Winter season (November – February)

ii) Pre-monsoon season ( February – May )

iii) Monsoon Season ( June – September)

iv) The season of retreating monsoon (September – October)

Meghalaya’s charms are made doubly attractive by its climate. On the whole cool and temperate round the year. Its mild climate makes Meghalaya the rarest hill resort in the country that is pleasure to visit round the year even in winter.

Rainfall:

True to its name Meghalaya, for half of the year from late April to September rain-bearing clouds envelop the land. One of the world’s wettest regions is found in the state. Monsynram with an average of 17780 mm of annual rainfall over a 74 year period has the highest ever rainfall recorded in the world. The Annual rainfall in Shillong is about 2337mm. In August, the mean temperature at Shillong is 21°C and it falls to 9.5°C in January.

Economy:

Meghalaya is basically an agricultural state though the net sown area is less than 9%. 83% of the total population of the state depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood. But the potential for agricultural expansion is very limited in Meghalaya due to the terrain. Jhuming or shifting cultivation practiced in the state on a large scale is one of the biggest problems needs to be tackled. Rice and maize are the major food crops. Pineapple, oranges and bananas are the important horticultural produces. Potato, jute, cotton, mustard, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, tezpatta are some of the important cash crops produce in Meghalaya. Apart from above, Meghalaya has achieved success in cultivation of tea, mushroom and tomato.

Forest:

In 1997 the forest area in Meghalaya was 15657 Sq.Km. which has gone down to 15584 Sq.Km. in 2001 mostly due to jhum cultivation (burning of tree and planting the cleaned areas in a cyclical operation). The principal timber species are Teak, Pine, Titachapa, Gomari, Bola and Makrisal. Principal forest products include timber, bamboo, cane, medicinal plants and herbs. Meghalaya is endowed with a rich variety of beauty in nature. Of the 17000 species of orchids in the world, about 1250 exist in India of which nearly 300 are found in Meghalaya. The state abounds in elephants, tigers, leopards, deer, monkeys, peacocks, pigeons, mynas and parrots. Out of the total forest area of 15,657 Sq.Km. in the State only 1,027.20 Sq.Km. is under the control of State Forest Department, which constitutes only 4.58% of the total geographical area of the state and 6.56% of the total forest area of the state. Rest of the area is either private or clan/ community owned and is under the indirect control and management of the Autonomous District Councils.

Mineral Resource:

Meghalaya is very rich in minerals. The chief among them, which are exploited at present are -

Coal – The coal found in the state is of superior quality in terms of calorific value and ash content but the only drawback is its high sulphur content. The total estimate of coal reserves in the state is to the tune of about 640 million tones.

Limestone – The total reserve of this minor mineral in the State is estimated to be in the region of 5,000 million tones. The quality of the limestone found here is found to range from the chemical to cement grade.

Silimanite – One of the best silimanite reserves of the world is found in the West Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya. The total estimated reserve of this industrially useful mineral is estimated to be about 0.045 million tones.

Uranium – Meghalaya has recently appeared on the Uranium Map of India with the discovery of high-grade uranium deposits in the southern part of the East Khasi Hills District.

Kaolin Clay – This mineral is found almost throughout the State and finds application in pottery, paper industry and the rubber industry and the extent of its availability in the State is estimated to be about 6 million tones.

People:

The people of Meghalaya belong to some of the earliest community on Indian Subcontinent with their own tradition and customs. The Garos, the Khasi and the Jaintias are among the few communities in the world that observe matrialineal line of descent in the family in which lineage the ancestral property passes down from mother to daughter.

Some of other basic datas of Meghalaya are as under:

1. Total Geographical Area : 22,429 Sq.Km

2. Total Population : 23,06,069

Sl. No.	Name of the District	Total Population	Male	Female
1.	West Garo Hills	515819	259440	256373
2.	East Garo Hills	247555	126312	121243
3.	South Garo Hills	99105	51051	48054
4.	West Khasi Hills	294115	149159	144956
5.	East Khasi Hills	660994	333187	327807
6.	Ri-Bhoi	192	99315	93480
7.	Jaintia Hills	295692	149376	146316
	Total:	2306069	1167840	1138229

3. Total Rural Population : 18,53,457

(a) Male : 9,09,803

(b) Female : 9,13,654

4. Total Urban Population : 4,52,612

(a) Male : 2,28,037

(b) Female : 2,24,575

5. Total Population below Poverty Line : 12,72,027

6. Total No. of major river : 19 Nos.

7. Total Nos. of National High Ways :

(a) Total Nos. :10 Nos.

(b) Total Lengths : 520 Kms.

8. Total Nos. of PWD Roads –

(a) Total Nos. : 23 Nos.

(b) Total lengths : 6087 Kms.

9. No. of Industrial Estates - : 7 Nos.

Name of District	Location	Area in Acres	No. of Sheds	Shades occupied	Shades vacant	Power Position	Present status
East Khasi Hills	Shillong (Shillong IE) Barapani	10.22	14	-	-	Normal	Functioning Unit – 6 Not Functioning – 9
West Khasi Hills	Nongstoin	12.00	4	-	-	Normal	Functioning – 2 Not Functioning – 4
Jaintia Hills	Mawlyndep (Khlientymshi IE)	14.56	4 – Govt. 3 – Private	-	-	Normal	Functioning Unit – 1 Under Functioning – 3 Not Functioning - 4
West Garo Hills	Tura (Tura-IE)	19.83	5	-	-	Normal	Not in use by Industrial units.
East Garo Hills	William Nagar Mendipathar	51.3 7	4 4	-	-	Normal
South Garo Hills	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

10. Total Power Scenario :

(a) Total Power Generation in the state : 637.63 MW

(b) Power availability : 1393.29 MW

11. Total Nos. of District :

(a) Name of District/ No. of villages :

Sl. No.	Name of Districts	No. of Village	No. of Household	Total Population
1.	East Khasi Hills	920	70,242	3,83,175
2.	West Khasi Hills	924	44,238	2,61,451
3.	Jaintia Hills	467	45,708	2,74,051
4.	Ri-Bhoi	543	32,474	1,79,610
5.	East Garo Hills	864	38,800	2,14,675
6.	West Garo Hills	1469	85,350	4,59,412
7.	South Garo Hills	595	16,312	92,337

12. Un-employed Scenario – : 36,623 Nos. upto April, 2004

13. Total area under forest – : 9,50,000 Hectare

14. Total Bamboo grown area under forest :

(a) Name of the District / Bamboo grown area under forest (in Hectare)

Sl.No.	Name of District	Bamboo Grown Areas
1.	East Khasi Hills West Khasdi Hills Ri-Bhoi	1729.52 Sq. Km
2.	East Garo Hills West Garo Hills South Garo Hills	1161.70 Sq. Km
3.	Jaintia Hills	140.18 Sq. Km.

15. Name of various species of bamboo :

Sl.No. Species

1. Arundinaria hirsute

2. Arundinaria mannii

3. Arundinaria microphylla

4. Arundinaria suberecta

5. Bambusa arundinacea

6. Bambusa balcooa

7. Bambusa glauscescens* = Bambusa nana

8. Bambusa khasiana

9. Bambusa longispiculata

10. Bambusa nutans

11. Bambusa pallida

12. Bambusa tulda

13. bambusa vulgaris*

14. Cephalostachyum capitatum

15. Var. Decompostium

16. Cephalostachyum fuchsianum

17. Cephalostachyum pallidum

18. Cephalostachyum griffithiana = Arundinaria griffithiana

19. Cephalostachyum hookeriana = Arundinaria polystachys

20. Cephalostachyum khasiana = Arundinaria khasiana

21. Cephalostachyum polystachya = Arundinaria polystachya

22. Dendrocalamus calostachys

23. Dendrocalamus hamiltonii

24. Dendrocalamus hookeri

25. Dendrocalamus sikkimensis

26. Dendrocalamus strictus

27. Dinochloa compactiflora = Melocalamus compacitiflorus

28. Gigantochloa macrostachya

29. Gigantochloa takeserah

30. Melocana baccifera = Melocanna bambusoides

31. Neohouzeoua dullooa

32. Neohouzeoua helferi

33. Oxytenanthera albociliata*

34. Oxytenanthera nigrociliata

35. Phyllostachys mannii

36. Pseudostachyum polymorphum

37. Teinostachyum griffithii

38. Thamnocalamus prainii Arundinaria prainii

16. Total Quantity of Bamoo Harvested yearly (in MT)

Name of the Species / Quantity harvested ( in MT)

1. Forest Department till now have not harvested

because of reserved forest policy

2. Bamboo grown areas are under private sector

3. In Garo Hills,the District Council realized