The Northeast Notebook

The house of bambooNagaland is looking at bamboo to solve at least some of its employment problem. While last year the state had declared it...

The house of bamboo
Nagaland is looking at bamboo to solve at least some of its employment problem. While last year the state had declared its bamboo policy, later this month it will hold an international meet on bamboo that will be attended by representatives of 11 European Union countries.

Nagaland is not only looking at promoting its traditional bamboo handicrafts in the international market, it is also working on producing building materials from bamboo.

Nation of tea drinkers
Determined to popularise tea, industry captains have urged the Centre to declare tea the national drink.

Such a declaration would give a new lease of life to the industry, which has been hit by an aggressive marketing campaign launched by soft drinks manufacturers that has weaned the young away from tea. The industry has also asked New Delhi to declare January 10 as Indian Tea Day to mark the sailing of the first consignment of Indian tea to the London auction more than 150 years ago.

Meghalaya ends jhum
Acknowledging that the traditional jhum traditional slash and burn method of cultivation is no longer ecologically viable, Meghalaya has worked out a new plan to bring it to an end.

The new scheme aims at attracting more farmers towards paddy cultivation through scientific terrace cultivation designed by ICAR, Shillong. Meghalaya, which produces huge quantities of pineapples and jackfruit, imports about 76,000 metric tonne of rice ever year.

Jatinga8217;s safe skies
Birds flocking to the Jatinga village in Assam8217;s North Cachar Hills may not be able to commit 8216;suicide8217; this autumn. The authorities, alarmed over the large scale killing of migratory birds during autumn and early winter evenings in the village, last week clamped prohibitory orders barring people from moving around with bird catching devices.

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A large number of birds are killed every year as they lose direction and fall in traps laid by villagers in Jatinga.

Revised oil targets
The public sector Oil India Ltd OIL has announced its revised target: doubling its crude oil and natural gas production in the next three to four years.

During 2003-04, the PSU recorded an 8 per cent increase in crude oil production, which was close to 3.2 million tonne, while its natural gas output went up by 11 per cent during the last year.