Bamboo means business in Nagaland

Close on the heels of Mizoram, it is now Nagaland’s turn to look at its vast bamboo forests as a road to economic development.

No wonder it observed the International Bamboo Day in style on September 18, with Vice-President Hamid Ansari gracing the occasion as the chief guest.

Nagaland, which has about 4.5 lakh hectares under bamboo, owns only about 5 per cent of India’s growing bamboo stock.

But when it comes to putting it into economic use through value addition, it has been leading with a number of bamboo-based units coming up in the past few years.