One man’s bamboo quest breaks records
With 96 varieties harvested, farmer Prashant Date sets the record for the largest collection of bamboo in India. His garden is growing and he may venture into the commercial space soon.
When does a fan become a connoisseur?
When a modest cluster of his favourite grass becomes a record-breaking collection, perhaps? When he goes from planting one or two varieties of the world’s tallest grass (yes, bamboo is a grass) to harvesting 96 in less than five years, surely.
29-year-old Prashant Atmaram Date from the Lakhalgaon taluka of Nashik district in Maharashtra took a fancy to bamboo in 2017.
He now holds the record for the largest collection of bamboo species by an individual.
“Of the 148 species of bamboo found in the country, 136 are considered indigenous and I have 96 of them,” said Date, who has a diploma in information technology, but got hooked to growing different varieties of bamboo on the advice of a forester.
There is an understandable sense of pride when he says “My entry for the largest collection of bamboo species has been included in the latest India Book of Records and is being considered for the Limca Book of Records as well.”
Data’s bambusetum, the official word for a bamboo garden, is spread over 2,400 square feet, with each species growing in large pots and clearly tagged for identification. The collection is from his visits to eight bamboo-rich states in the country – from Kerala to the Northeast.
Also Read | Bamboo eliminates poverty among Wayanad villagers
He has sourced the plants from forest research institutes as well as local groves.
“Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and other states of the region have an amazing variety of bamboo and they are used in everyday life. Carting the bamboo saplings to Nashik was a big challenge,” Date said, adding, “I carried them in hand bags and requested people to accommodate the saplings in crowded coaches.”
Bamboo and its bountiful applications
The versatile grass has been enshrined for posterity in ‘The House of Bamboo’, an Andy Williams song from 1958: “Number 54 – the house with the bamboo door, bamboo roof and bamboo walls. It’s even got a bamboo floor.”
True to the song’s spirit, there are about 1,500 documented traditional uses of bamboo from cradle to coffin, according to research done over the years.
My entry for the largest collection of bamboo species has been included in the latest India Book of Records”
Prashant Date
Bamboo shoots and seeds are used as food sources by many indigenous communities, while its stems and leaves serve as fodder.
People in the Northeast make bamboo hats, baskets, toys, musical instruments, furniture, paper and much more.
Also Read | The vanishing art of weaving bamboo baskets
There are houses made entirely of bamboo. Bamboo stems are used to make tools and field implements, and are also used as firewood. Bamboo scaffoldings, strong and sturdy, reach skywards for construction of some of the tallest buildings.
In Assam a tribal flute made from the bamboo species Dendrocalamus tulda is played by priests during a festival to drive away evil spirits.
A secretion from the stem is used in ayurvedic medicine and some people also ingest it as an aphrodisiac.
The rarest and the most expensive are the Schizostachyum Brachlyadum, better known as the golden bamboo from Thailand, and Dendrocalamus Giganteus, the giant bamboo that has a girth of 12-plus inches. The golden bamboo can grow as tall as a mobile tower.
These are Date’s favourites.
Both plants are expensive and cost Rs 600 to Rs 750 a sapling. The golden bamboo is rare in India.
Also Read | Konkan farms reap the bounty of bamboo
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the 50-feet tall golden bamboo in Kerala,” he said, revealing his plan to get it for his future garden in Pune.
Where the grass is greener
Date’s current bambusetum doesn’t generate money.
“My collection gives happiness to me and the visitors. It’s for education and sharing knowledge. Though I do hope that something can be done to open up the economic prospects from my collection,” said the farmer, a recipient of the state’s Krantiveer Vasantrao Naik Puruskar in 2021.
More than 750 farmers have visited his bamboo farm. There have also been VIP visitors such as Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
“My dreams of growing bamboo on a commercial scale is on hold until I develop a larger Bambusetum on a one-hectare parcel in Pune,” Date said.
A small furniture unit is coming up as an adjunct to his company, Bamboo Next LLP. A bamboo treatment plant and a germ plasma bank will be part of the Pune farm. He has done courses on bamboo furniture, nursery, propagation and management of the plant, value addition and preservation.
Also Read | Manipur’s decreasing bamboo supply hurts artisans
Date sees potential in bamboo cultivation in Maharashtra after its removal from the Forest Conservation Act in 2017.
Since 2019, there has been a spurt in bamboo cultivation in Amravati, Ratnagiri and other areas. It could challenge water-guzzling sugarcane as one of the region’s mainstay cash crops because once planted, bamboo can be harvested repeatedly for 40 years and more.
The lead image shows a bamboo tree, the likes of which Atmaram Date grows (Photo courtesy Chuttersnap, Unsplash)
Usha Rai is a veteran journalist who has worked for the Times of India, Indian Express and Hindustan Times and mainstreamed development issues into news. She is recipient of the Chameli Devi award for outstanding women journalists.
