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INTRODUCTION

amboo, the fastest growing plant on earth is called the tree of the present century. It belongs to the botanical tribe "Bambuseae"and the botanical family "Pocaeae". Reeds are it known by the botanical name "Okhlandraravancorika".'There are 1250types of bamboo in the world, 137 types grow in India and 28 types grow in Kerala. About 250 crores of people directly or indirectly use bamboo. Over4000 different types of products are made from it. More than 37000 crores of rupeesworth of bamboo trade takes place every year. Out of the total bamboosupply, 65% comes from land and 35% is derived from forests. It looks like a tall tree, though it is regarded as the tallest of all grasses. Bamboogrows primarily in the warm parts of Asia, Africa and South America. India is well endowed with resources of bamboo, the second largest in the world. Bamboo grows on millions of hectares of forest land, in homesteads & on private plantations. There are almost 130 species in India, spread across 18 genera (NMBA, 2004). 78 species 0f bamboo &24 species of cane are found in North East India. Barak Valley region of Assam is richly endowed with the bamboo. Its abundance multiple uses have led bamboo to play a pivotal role the socioeconomic & cultural life of the people of the region. It finds varied uses like construction material, in making diverse implements for agriculture, fishing & cattle rearing & the simple household items utensils small furniture etc. In India clumps of bamboos are raised in cultivated lands of most North Eastern states, Goa, Kerala, coastal Maharashtra & Karnataka. Home gardens & bamboo grooves of Barak Valley in southern Assam are rich in bamboo resources &Bambusacacharensis R. Majumder (betua), Bambusa vulgarisSchrad,(jai borua), &BambusabalcooaRoxb. (Silborua) are important village bamboos prioritized by the rural people. B.balcooa, is indigenous to the NE India & cultivated in the villages of different states of India & is grown up to an altitude of 600m.B.vulgaris is cultivated in many parts of the world, in India mainly in the North East & also in many other parts of the country & is grown up to an altitude of 1200m.Both the species are listed among the 14 Indian priority bamboo species & 38 priority bamboo species for international action. Studies on bamboo biomass are scarce & most of the studies are carried out in natural plantations. Biomass can be estimated by direct method, i.e. destructive techniques or by indirect method, i.e. developing an allometric relationship. Destructive techniques for biomass estimation are time consuming & expensive due to the large dimensions & amounts of biomass that have to be processed.

Allometric relationship yields a non- destructive & indirect measurement of biomass components & it s often preferred since it is less time consuming & less expensive than direct measurements.

Bamboo Ecosystem Roles in Carbon Dioxide Sequestration :-There are three carbon
Inventories globally , which are ocean , atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems So far , we know little about the carbon cycle between ocean and atmosphere. Because we live in this terrestrial ecosystem, which is complex and bigness , we know much about the carbon cycle between atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystem In the terrestrial ecosystem , forest is the largest carbon Inventory and it deposits 1146 x 1015 g carbon which occupies 56 percent of the carbon inventory of the total terrestrial bamboo ecosystem is an Important part of forest ecosystem and an important carbon source and carbon sinks on the earth In this system , bamboo biomass , bamboo litter and bamboo soil are carbon sinks , whale respiration of organisms and decomposers degrading the dropping or carcasses of animals and plants are the greatest carbon sources on the earth If the amount of bamboo carbon fixation is larger than that of the decomposition, bamboo ecosystem is a carbon sink , otherwise it is a carbon source. In the global carbon cycle , the bamboo ecosystem is regarded as an carbon sink , but due to the bamboo ecosystem destruction , degradation and other interfering factors , bamboo forest ecosystem will become carbon sources , thus contributing to cause degradation of environment and exasperation of Greenhouse In bamboo ecosystem through the mechanism of photosynthesis , bamboo turn carbon dioxide into organic carbon and stores It as their structures ( Gp : gross of plant) Respiration of plant will emit part of carbon ( Ra ) Part of organic carbon will store in the litters and forest soil and part of which will gradually decompose , rot and return to the atmosphere ( Rh) . The Net Primary Production (NPP) of bamboo forest may be formulated as : NPP = Gp - R a - R h In the natural situation, the Net Primary Production of bamboo forest is positive , but due to the disturbance by human beings , NPP is negative. So we must take measures to protect the bamboo forest from being a carbon source and to mitigate the Greenhouse effects through carbon storage and emission from bamboo stands, litters, bamboo forest soil and bamboo products, the bamboo ecosystem participates in the carbon cycle between bamboo forest and atmosphere.

Bamboo for Soil Erosion Control


Soil erosion affects both agriculture and natural environment with impacts on site as well as off site. It is one of the most widespread of today s environmental problem. The deterioration of soil by the physical movement of soil particles from a given site is as termed soil erosion.

Some of the main causes of soil erosion are wind, water, ice, animals and human activities. Erosion results in the degradation of a soil s productivity in a number of ways: it reduces the efficiency of plant nutrient use, damages seedling, decreases plants rooting depth, reduces the soils water holding capacity, decreasing its permeability, increases runoff and reduces it infiltration rate (Troeh, 1991). It was found that grater hoof activity and lower organic matter of the 0-20 mm layer in the high stocking rate paddock caused the soil surface to be more susceptible to erosion. Grazing by removing perennial grasses and pulverizing the surface soil can have a major impact on local water balances and erosion rates respectively within the inter groove areas (Greeneetal, 1994). Deng and his team studied five different conversion models to compare the soil conservation efficiency (Deng et. al., 2003). Out of the five models, bamboo grooves intercropped with fodder grass was most in soil erosion. Extensive fibrous root system, connected rhizome system, its comparatively dense foliage, the leaf litter produced on the soil surface, etc. are some the important valuable characteristic features of bamboo for controlling soil erosion. The comparatively dense foliage protects against beating rains, and its habit of producing new culms from underground rhizomes allows harvesting without disturbing the soil (Ben-zhietal, 2005).

Water Conservation and Bamboo


Water is an important natural resource. An important use of water in our country is for irrigation. Irrigation accounts for about 70% of total water withdrawals worldwide. Besides, water is also required in large amounts for industrial and domestic consumption. Due to population and rapid economic growth, water use has increased over recent decades in most of the nations except for a few industrializedcountry (Sharma, 2001). Bamboo germplasm enjoys a wide diversity in India, in particular north-east region. It plays important role in water conservation and water source protection. The green bamboo covering the mountains of northeast states helps to protect the water resources, and bamboo forests help to conserve water. The litter deposits on the soil surface of the forest cover reduces the evaporation of underground water and hence maintain the moisture conserving water more in comparison to other forest species.

Bamboo Agro-forestry and Land Rehabilitation


Agro forestry is an agricultural model in which herbaceous plant and woody perennial trees are grown together. The combinations are such that the both partners should not competefor nutrition and also they are not allelopathic to each other. In recent years, agro forestry of different models have been popularized due to its win-win situation both from the proactive and ecological view. From the ecological point of view, agro forestry are recommended for management, maintenance and improvement of soil fertility (Nathetal, 2009).Bamboo has its

ability to grow in various types of soils. It performs well in arid, degraded and eroded land. Growing of bamboo can conserve the soil, prevents water flow and rehabilitate the land. The enormous biomass of bamboo particularly the leaf litter has ability to regenerate the soil. Bamboo plantation can be instrumental for land repair and maintenance (Ben Zhi, 2005).

Global climate change has inspired an increasing interest of scientific & political in the study of global carbon storage & carbon balance.Several no regret policies & forest management practices were considered to address the impact of climate change. Yet, it is essential to evaluate the role of village bamboos in C sequestration to understand its effectiveness in atmospheric Co2 mitigation. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recommended a catalogue of remedial measures to mitigate increasing Co2 emissions. Among these remedial measures, such as reafforestation, the conversion agricultural land into agrosilvicultural system has also been included. Bamboos in India form the imperative component of agrosilvicultural systems & have an important influence on the C balance of ecosystem through assimilating atmospheric Co2. A complete & detail study of all biomass compartments, biomass allocation& C concentration for different culm age classes has seldom been made for any bamboo species. This study is the first of its kinds to examine the stand biomass & carbon pool within smallholder farmers managed bamboo land. Since the knowledge of ground standing biomass & C storage in the stand forms one of the basic requirements for sustainable management of a species. According to the data of Isagiet al., the biomass of the researched bamboo forest carbon sinks. increased within 8 years, from November 1983 - November 1991, by 1.3 t C ha-1 year1 in culms and by 0.1 t C ha-1 year-1 in branches. In mature bamboo stands in steady-state the amount of biomass around the equilibrium point depending on the varying ecological factors.After a phase of growth, a phase of decline may follow. From these data it cannot be concluded that a bamboo forest can unlimitedly increase its above groundbiomass and therefore continue forever to act active CO2 sink.

The United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) defines C sequestration as the process of removing C from the atmosphere depositingit in a reservoir.As per as concern, bamboo from the imperative component & the agrisilvicultural system in N.E. India & have an important influence on the C balance of the ecosystem through assimilating atmospheric Co2.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
DIVERSITY, DISTRIBUTION & SOCIO- ECONOMY
The first mention of bamboo is found in works of ctesius, in a letter from Alexander the Great to Aristole& in the natural history of pliny (Chatterjee&Raizada 1963; Bahadur, 1979).However the earliest attempt at describing bamboo in his publication entitledHerbarium Amboinense (Bedell ,1997).Munro s Monograph of Bambusaceae (1868) is the foundation of our knowledge of bamboos where he enumerated 220 species with description of 170 species under 20 genera of bamboos of the world & classified them under three divisions. The monumental work of Gamble Bambusaceae of British India (1896) enumerates 15 genera &125 species occurring in India, Pakistan, Srilanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar&Malaya. This was followed by Camus (1913), who describedthe bamboos of India& China. A systematic analysis of species was attempted by Blatter (1929) which included 24 new species recorded from India since the publication of Gamble (1896).The work of Tewari (1992) is the first comprehensive work of Indian bamboos after Independence. He described 128 species under 23 genera with illustration of55 species. The work of Negi&Naithani (1994) includes useful information on the vernacular names, description, distribution phenology, silviculture, management & utilization of important bamboos of India in a concise form. In North Eastern India Bor (1940) described 50 species under 16 genera in his work on grasses of Assam. Haridasonet. al(1987) recorded the occurrence of 50 species with their distribution from Arunachal Pradesh. Biswas (1988) discussed in detail about the distribution pattern of bamboos on N.E. India. Shukla (1996) described 84 species under 15 genera of bamboos from his region .Recently Barooah&Borthakur (2003) described 40 species one variety & one form of bamboos belonging to 10 genera in Assam in their work on Diversity &Distribution of bamboos in Assam. There is a little published literature on the bamboos in home garden as such.Studies indicate that bamboo is an important component in the rural landscape of many region of Asia .In India clumps of bamboo are raised in cultivated lands of most N.E. states, Goa, Kerala, Coastal Maharashtra & Karnataka (Adokoli 2002).There is no published work on the growing clump density of bamboos in the home gardens of N.E. India .Because of greater importance of bamboo in the rural economy of several tropical countries there has been focus on bamboo research to increase the income of farmers from bamboo resources (Hammermaster1980, Das 1990; de zoysa et. al. 1990).

Phenology & Growth:Mcclure (1967) made an extensive coverage of vegetative & reproductive characteristics of bamboo plant, with their propagation methods, flowering & fruiting behavior to various genera & species. Mcclure (1967), Drasified (1992) Wong (1965) illustrated the morphological characteristics of bamboo. According to their morphology, bamboos are divided into monopodial bamboos with leptomorph rhizome system &sympodial bamboos with pachymorph rhizome systemMcclure (1967).There is a limited literature on bamboo phenology like periodicity of culm emergence (Useda 1960,Rao et. al. 1990, Banik 1999) bud break & new branching on the culm (Lodhiyal et. al, 1998, Banik 1999, Franklin 2005) leafing pattern (Rao et.al.). Bamboo is a fast growing species &high yield renewable resources. Bamboo growths depend on species, but generally all bamboo matures quickly. Elongation of Culms in a single growth period of no more than 4 months is characteristic of bamboo (Useda 1960).The daily extension growth amounts to about 10-30 cm but reaches 58cm for D.gigantus (Osmaston 1918) & up to 121cm for Phyllostachys reticulate (Useda 1960).The fast growth characteristics of bamboo is an important incentive for its utilization. Due to the fact it is a cheap & abundant.

Culm age structure &silvicultural practices:The age structure of a bamboo stand can be modified by felling culms when they reached a specific age or by varying the length of the felling cycle. (Kleinhenz&Midmore 2001).Lakshmana s (1990) work with B. arundinaceashowed that 1 year old standing culms contributed 77% to an annual production of new culms, 2 years old standing culms contributed 20% & standing culms >2 years old contributed only 3%. Chaturvedi (1988) concluded that culms >2 years contributed only a little to growth a new culm. Silvicultural practice with bamboo is largely restricted to Asian countries. Both clear cutting & selection systems are commonly employed in bamboo forests. Khan (1962) observed that when a clump clear felled, the newly emerging culms are smaller in length & thinner in diameter & less vigorous for first few years.

Biomass production:Studies on bamboo biomass are scarce & most of the studies are carried out in natural plantations. Biomass can be estimated by direct method, i.e. destructive techniques or by indirect method, i.e. developing an allometric relationship. Destructive techniques for biomass estimation are time consuming & expensive due to the large dimensions & amounts of biomass that have to be processed (Willebran et.al 1993).Allometric relationship yields a non-

destructive & indirect measurement of biomass components & it s often preferred since it is less time consuming & less expensive than direct measurements. (St. Clair 1993). Literature on bamboo biomass & productivity is scarce. There is a great variation in stand biomass between species & between studies within the same species the overall biomass between monopodial&sympodial biomass was essentially similar. The above ground stand biomass values are 138 t /ha for Phtllostachyspubescens in central Japan (Isagi et.al.).The above ground standing biomass of village bamboo 42.98- 152.15 Mg /ha (Nath& Das et.al.2008) is greater than the corresponding reported values fir Fargesiaspathacea (Taylor &Zisheng 1987); Dendrocalamusstrictus (Tripathi& Singh 1994); Singh & Singh (1999); Gigantochloaatter&G. verticiliata (Christanty et.al. 1996); Phyllostachyspubescens (Isagi et. al. 1997 ) D.latiflorus(Yiming et.al 1998); Yushania alpine ( Embaye et.al 2005) where as it is lower than Cusqueaculeou (Veblen et.al 1980); Bambusabambos (Shanmughavel& Francis 1996; Das &Chaturvedi 2006).Higher in number of culms increased the total leaf area implying greater capture of solar radiation & hence more photosynthetic production leading to increase in stand biomass over the area. Current year culm contributed the highest proportion of the stand biomass that ranged from 16-39% of the total stand biomass & together with one year culm contributed 59% of the total above ground stand biomass indicating maximum biomass contribution by the younger culm ages.(Nath& Das 2008). Above ground net production of 39.41-44.03 Mg /ha of the bamboo stand is higher than the values reported for bamboo forest & bamboo plantation (Veblen et.al 1980; Singh & Singh 1999) but lower than B. bambos (Shanmughavel et.al 2001).

Carbon Storage & Sequestration:Carbon storage is intricately linked with site quality, nature of land use, choice of species, silvicultural& other crop management practices adopted (Swamy&Puri 2004). A complete & detailed study on C storage & sequestration in relation to culm component & ages are lacking. Carbon content in different culm components have been studied for PhyllostachysnigraP. bambusoides&P. bissetti (Scurlocket al.2000). More recently ( Das&Chaturvedi 2006) studied the C balance & sequestration in Bambusabambosin Eastern India.It was found that in Dendrocalamusstrictus (Dhruba 2008) aboveground carbon sequestration was higher in culms than in the leaves in bamboo. The total carbon sequestration from bamboo culms was 1. 52 t/ha and from bamboo leaves was 0.14 t/ha. Thus total above ground carbonsequestration was1.66 t/ha. Cestimate in aboveground vegetation in bamboo farmingsystem ranged from 6.51 to 8.95 Mg ha 1(Nath& Das 2004; 2007) with 87%, 9% and 4% of the total C stored inculm, branch andleaf respectively. The rate of Csequestration was 1.20 1.46 Mg ha 1 yr 1, with a meanof 1.32 Mg ha 1 yr Inbamboo farming system underselective felling regime, although the C stock andsequestration was low compared to other agro forestry systems across the world, it represented a permanent stock. Harvesting ofmature culms was balanced by Cgain from new culms produced in the clump. Carbonassimilation ratio, an index to evaluate C

sequestrationpotential per unit of C stock, exhibited bamboofarming as an efficient C sequester than other pureplantations or natural forests. Promotion of smallholderbamboo farming systems to reduce atmosphericgreenhouse gas levels to receive certified emission reduction is recommended. As the people in the world pay more and more attention to the global warming, caused by Greenhouse effect, China has also conducted some carbon balance study, especially in forest ecosystem carbon Inventory. Besides the studies by forest experimental stations, such as the tropical Forest experimental station in Hainan province and artificial forest experimental station In south China, researchers have surveyed the space distribution of forest carbon, based on the statistic data, plot survey and GIS. All these work has established foundation for forest carbon cycle studies in China. Today the forest coverage in China is 18. 21%, and as reforestation steps quicken up and forest management level is Improved, in 2050 the forest coverage will reach 27% Without question, enhancement of forest area will surely Improve the forest absorption on carbon dioxide In the air and Chinese forest will have a carbon sink roles In the global carbon balance. There are still many efforts needed to settle Chinese carbon cycle in the future. To strengthen the fundamental studies on the forest ecosystem in forest experimental stations In order to reinforce the data on forest ecosystems In China; to study the different vegetarians in order to survey the carbon stock and carbon cycle on different forest ecosystems, considering the vast territory and complex vegetarians in China; to estimate the benefits of forest carbon sink (Fu Maouyi 2007).

The Future of Bamboo Ecosystems in Carbon Dioxide Sequestration


China has the richest bamboo resource in the world and is one of the bamboo origins and center distributions. The broad natural geographical environment from tropical, sub-tropical and warm temperate zones has provided 39 genera of more than 500 bamboo species with a favorable growing situation. The total bamboo area is more than 4.4 million ha, which occupies 3. 6% of the total forest land and plays an important role In conserving soil and water modulating climate and improving environment Their large amount of biomass determines their important function In carbon dioxide sequestration People in the world have reached an agreement in improving soil carbon storage , alleviating enhancement of carbon dioxide protecting soil from being degraded , Improving soil quality and productivity and conserving biodiversity It is estimated that in future 25 years, 14 +- 7 x 1015 carbon will be stored If the degraded land in the world be reestablished and if vegetation reestablishment and pasture intensive management are taken into account , carbon dioxide sequestra-15 non will be 0. 58 0. 80 x 1015 g yearly ,which will be 9% - 12% percent of carbon dioxide emission from human activities So carbon sequestration projects as an available and economic measure are carried out in many countries in the world to cut down Greenhouse gas content , to Improve soil quality and to conserve environment (Fu Maouyi 2007).

Traditional utilization & management of bamboos:Bamboo is one of the oldest building material used by mankind. For instance, bamboo has been an practical source of material in traditional Asian housing & construction. It is easy to put together & easily repaired or replaced when damaged .It is more resilient than any other type of housing frame (United Nations 1972). In India 2.2 million tones of bamboo per annum are processes into pulp, making up about two- thirds of the total pulp production (Adamson et al 1978; IFAR/INBAR 1991). Various traditional utilization of bamboos by the local people from natural bamboo stands have been reported by Zaha (2000); Upreti&Sundriyal (2001) & Singh et al. (2003) from different parts of North Eastern India.

Materials & Methods:The species:Bambusacacharensis, B. balcooa&B.vulgaris are widely distributed & frequency cultivated bamboo species in the traditional home gardens & bamboo grooves of Barak Valley B.cacharensis is endemic to Assam & distributed abundantly in the Barak Valley of North East India. Adaptability to different agro climatic conditions, rapid extension growth, desirable growth architecture & multiple uses made the species highest prioritizedvillage bamboo of Barak Valley. B. balcooa is indigenous to the Northeastern India & cultivated in the villages of different states in India & is grown up to an altitude of 600m. B. vulgaris is cultivated extensively in many parts of the World, in India mainly in the North East & also in many other parts of the country & is grown up to an altitude of1200m .Both the species are listed among the 14 Indian priority bamboo species & 38 priority bamboo species for International action. Study site :The study was conducted in Professor colony atDargakonavillages, Cachar District, Barak Valley, North East India(2441 N, 9245 E), where bamboo occurs in all homegardens.Although seven bamboo species were found in thestudy area, the highest frequency of occurrence wasobserved for BambusacacharensisR. Majumder (Betua), followed by B. vulgaris Schrad. exWendl. (Jai borua)andB. balcooaRoxb. (Silborua)2. Since 85 90% of thetotal growing stock of bamboo in the homegardens wascontributed by these three species, C stock and sequestrationwere determined for these species. Homegarden sizein the villages ranged from 0.07 to 1.67 ha, with an average2of 0.28 ha. Communities like Mala, Maal and Pashidominated the study area. The climate of the study site issub-tropical warm and humid with average rainfall of2226 mm, most of which is received during the southwestmonsoon season (May September). Average maximumand minimum temperatures were 30.5C and 20.3C respectively.

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