2021-08-20 11:53:25
#ENVIRONMENT
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KVIC’s Project BOLD Reaches Leh-Ladakh Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) launched the first ever initiative to develop green cover over barren lands in Leh-Ladakh by planting bamboo saplings.
In a joint exercise, KVIC and the Forest Department of Leh-Ladakh planted 1000 bamboo saplings at Village Chuchot in Leh over 2.50 lakh sq ft of barren forest land that has remained unutilized so far.
The bamboo plantation was launched by KVIC Chairman Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena.
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Project BOLD ( Bamboo Oasis on Lands in Drought) Project BOLD aims to create bamboo-based green patches of land in arid and semi-arid zones.
The first of its kind exercise in India, project BOLD was launched on June 4 from the tribal village Nichla Mandwa in Udaipur, Rajasthan.
Under the project, 5000 saplings of special bamboo species – Bambusa Tulda and Bambusa Polymorpha from Assam were planted on approximately 16 acres of vacant arid Gram Panchayat land.
With this, KVIC also created a world record of planting the highest number of bamboo saplings on a single day at one location.
The initiative has been launched as part of KVIC’s “Khadi Bamboo Festival” to celebrate 75 years of independence “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav”.
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Land desertification & cause According to the United Nations’ official definition, desertification is land degradation in typically dry areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities.
Thus, land desertification refers to the process in which the biological productivity of drylands is reduced due to natural or artificial factors such as climate change, natural disasters like drought, soil erosion etc.
According to the Government’s data presented to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), area under desertification during 2011-13 is 82.64 million hectares (mha).
Further, close to 29% of India’s area is undergoing degradation.
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Environmental benefits of bamboo KVIC has judiciously chosen bamboo for the various benefits bamboo has to offer to the environment.
Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants.
It belongs to the subfamily of Bambusoideaa of the grass family Poaceae.
In India, bamboo covers 13.96 million hectares of area with 136 species.
Some of the important bamboos of commercial importance are Bambusa Tulda, Bambusa Balcooa, Bambusa Cacharensis, etc and can be used for making furniture, handicraft, paper pulp, construction work, etc.
Bamboos are very fast-growing plants and can be harvested in about three years.
Bamboos are also known for conserving water and reducing evaporation of water from the land surface, which is an important feature in arid and drought-prone regions.
Furthermore, bamboos can be used to control pollution by making use of bamboo charcoal, which has absorption properties.
SOURCE - PIB
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