Jairam says rubber a solution to border problems

How can one control illegal trade and other crimes along the Indo-Bangladesh border and at the same time provide an alternative livelihood to the poverty-stricken people living

How can one control illegal trade and other crimes along the Indo-Bangladesh border and at the same time provide an alternative livelihood to the poverty-stricken people living there? Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh has an answer8212;rubber plantation.

8220;We are, in fact, actively considering largescale promotion of rubber plantation along the Indian side of the Indo-Bangla border in Tripura in the next few years. This will act as a social fencing, which will also provide livelihood and help control illegal trade along the border,8221; said Ramesh.

The Ministry of Commerce wishes to take a cue from the Tripura Forest Development and Plantation Corporation TFDPC, and the Rubber Board and the North Eastern Council NEC are coming up with a comprehensive action plan to build this social fencing, Ramesh told The Indian Express.

The TFDPC has already planted about 1522.58 hectares of rubber along roughly 42.2 km on the Indian side of the border fence in the past few years. This has covered large tracts of denuded and degraded forest land and provided income to several hundred families.

A team of experts led by Dr James Jacob8212;Director of Research, Rubber Research Institute of India8212;which visited two stretches of rubber plantations on the Indo-Bangla border in April, has already recommended taking up rubber plantation on a larger scale. Tripura8217;s border with Bangladesh runs roughly into 800 km, 8220;but right now it is feasible to plant rubber only along a stretch of about 200 km,8221; Ramesh said.

8220;Activities associated with rubber cultivation will have a positive impact in terms of improving the means of livelihood of the local community by providing them rural employment/improved returns from their individual holdings,8221; the expert committee said. Tripura is India8217;s second most important rubber-producing state.

Several thousand families have virtually lost their land following construction of a barbed-wire fence along the border, primarily because the fence is located 150 yards inside the actual boundary line. Most Indian families here have had to relocate due to the fence.

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8220;These are aggrieved and internally displaced people. Developing a special project for rubber cultivation is certainly an attractive proposition from a social point of view,8221; the expert committee said.