Bamboo Resources of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, India

Andaman & Nicobar Islands is the largest archipelago system consisting of cover 200 islands, over 300 inlets and constitute one of the hotspot of biodiversity. It is separated from mainland India by almost 1,000 km. These are 3,552 plant species are known from these Islands. As regards bamboos not much work has been done because most of the areas are unexplored. The present authors have made extensive collection of bamboos of both Andaman and Nicobar group. There are 20 species wild and planted are reported from the islands. There is high degree of endemism in these islands. Six species viz. Dinochloa nicobarica, D. scandens var. andamanica (Bel bamboo), Schizostachyum andamanicum, S. kalpongianum, S. kurzii and S. rogersii are endemic the these islands. Dendrocalamus calostachys, Schizostachyum dullooa and S. polymorphum are now being reported from the wild for the first time. Rest all the species except Gigantochloa andamanica (Chatai bamboo) are under cultivation. There is a great demand for ballies or non-commercial timber in these Islands. Therefore bamboo can substitute the requirement of ballies, also can reduce the pressure on the forest.