The Hindu Business Line : Good scope to expand rubber planting along India-Bangladesh border

New Delhi May 22 Rubber cultivation along the Indo-Bangladesh international border in Tripura, currently on in 42 km covering an area of 1,500 hectares, could be expanded five times this level, given the congenial agro-climatic conditions for rubber cultivation there.

Official sources said that a report of the field inspection, exploring the technical feasibility of cultivating natural rubber along the Indo-Bangladesh international border in Tripura, by the Rubber Board, said that the Tripura Forest Development and Plantation Corporation's (TFDPC) efforts to develop rubber plantations along the home side of the border fence have been highly successful.

Covering more areas

They said that TFDPC has plans to convert more areas along the border on the home side of the fencing (covering an area of 3,874 ha of forest land) for which the Government has granted permission.

The sources said that on the home side of the fence, forest lands were mostly denuded and therefore growing rubber there might be a good way of providing a permanent tree cover and thus preventing further ecological degradation of the region.

Estimates provided by the Tripura Forest Department reveal that an additional area of nearly 6,000 ha of denuded forestlands could be converted into rubber plantations.

Besides, an area of about 1,500 ha might be available with private citizens adjoining the border fence on the home side that also could be potentially cultivated with rubber.

Carbon trading

The sources said that possibility of carbon trading from the newly created rubber plantations under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol could be explored in the new project. Rubber Board has already initiated two projects on carbon trading.

When contacted, the Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, told Business Line here that a couple of weeks ago he was in Tripura to look at the rubber cultivation in the State where the total potential has been assessed by the Rubber Board at about one lakh hectare.