Bamboo flowers may wilt ..by Jagmeet Y. Ghuman in the TRIBUNE newspaper.

Kumarhatti : Even as the Ministry of Rural Development has shot down the plea of the Solan Forest Division to fund the regeneration of the bamboo forest area the division has turned to various agencies to arrange funds for process.

The plea to lend financial support has already been made to the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), the Ministry of Environment and Forest, the National Mission of Bamboo Application and the Himalayan Forestry Research Institute at Shimla, informed Mr Alok Nagar, DFO, Solan division.

A sum of Rs 2.50 crore is required to facilitate the regeneration of bamboo forest in division. Over 900-hectare area of Solan division is under bamboo cultivation. The flowering in the bamboo forest has taken place on a largescale this time. The last time the flowering in bamboo forest had taken place in 1959.

There was a urgent need to protect the scattering of seeds in the bamboo forest area livestock, maintained Mr Nagar. A round-the-clock vigil, besides fencing of the area, was required to protect the regeneration process of bamboo, he asserted. The bamboo shoots usually sprout from seeds in the rainy season and it was high time to take care of growing shoots, he said. The flowering was noticed in January. To reduce incidents of fire efforts were on to remove the dried bamboo shorts from the area with the help of the Forest Corporation, said Mr Nagar.