PUBLISHED IN THE ASSAM TRIBUNE (www.assamtribune.com) SATURDAY SUPPLEMENTARY "HORIZON" ON SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2008
Living safely amidst flood has been a big problem for Mohammed Azibur 
Rahman of Panikhaiti village under Chandrapur development block, 17 kilometres from Dispur, the capital of Assam. The same condition disturbs more than three hundred families of his locality. For, they have to repair their flood damaged houses after each devastating flood.
But the floods were more harsh to Uday Pegu of Dhakuakhana that claimed two lives of his family few years ago. When in a rainy day he saw that a flood devastated his ten-year-old shaky chang ghar (traditionally built by Mising community in Assam) within few minutes, he had nothing to do but swim across water to save his soul. Life became miserable for him after the flood. But rays of hope of living safely rejuvenated him when he learnt about the newly developed bamboo hut by the Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre, Guwahati (CBTC). Azibur also, while narrating that he had to chase three snakes from his broken hut to save his wife Jasmine and two daughters last summer, told us, “if the government provides such a hut for us in low rate we will be safe at least during floods.”
Officially named as ‘bamboo-hut’, this model residence was developed by the Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre with local forest resources like bamboo, wood and cane. Cane and wood are slightly used in the hut while bamboo remains the bulk of the raw materials.
“We have developed this bamboo-hut with the local resources which give you the taste of living in Nature,” says Kamesh Salam, director of the CBTC. He reveals that the centre projected this idea for the first time in 2002.
Although the hut reflects the technical innovation of modern-day civilization, originally it gives us the flavour of traditionalism of indigenous people of the Northeast. The CBTC director, who hails from Manipur, says that the idea came to their minds from the traditional huts of the tribes in Assam and the Northeast. The traditional huts, made of bamboo and wood, in Assam are recognized as environment friendly. “Bamboo and wood can absorb the high temperature. These elements also protect people from extreme cold. Bamboo and wood maintain a balanced temperature in the newly built hut which is conducive to everyone’s health,” says Salam.
However, it is recommendable that while the traditional bamboo huts in Assam and other states of the Northeast are built in an ordinary manner, CBTC gives it a systematic and technological touch. It is interesting to know that before using, each and every piece of bamboo, wood and cane is being prepared through a special method of chemical treatment. This method of chemical treatment makes the bamboo, cane and wood pieces long lasting adding to the durability of the hut.
“In this chemical treatment a liquid mixture of creosote and diesel in equal proportion is used where the pieces of bamboo, wood and cane are immersed for two to three days. This mixture is used as a preservative for the forest resources used in the hut,” says architect and deputy manager of CBTC, Anjal Goswami. He also says that the guaranteed durability of this hut is 80 years.
Besides this, another feature of great importance about these huts is that the architects can give an innovative modern touch while erecting them. All the parts of the hut are foldable. It also requires less man power as only a handful people can carry the folding bamboo walls, windows, doors and the GC sheets to a particular place and assemble them in an organized manner within three days. Even air-conditioners can be fitted in the plastered bamboo huts.
Goswami says his group has built a 2,000 square feet modern air-conditioned community auditorium in the Kissama village near Kohima following an order of the Nagaland government.
The architect informs the modern bamboo hut is built in two structures. One model is constructed just over the ground, and the other is built on platforms above concrete posts. “While the first one is highly conducive to the earthquake-prone areas, the second is appropriately reliable to the inhabitants of flood-affected areas,” says another architect in the centre.
For these important features of the hut even the interested personnel of the Indian Army have been especially trained for weeks in Assam to make such huts during the periods of natural disasters like earthquake and flood.
When the building materials of the modern day concrete buildings are becoming costlier day by day, the natural resources of the bamboo hut remains cheaper, particularly in the northeastern states. Moreover, bamboo is a largely available forest resource in every state of the Northeast for which neighbouring countries like China and Thailand are projecting bilateral business agreement with India.
The non-AC model of a three-room hut costs between Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 while the cost of such a hut with air-condition facility is around Rs 3 lakh. In the past couple of years, both the models gained increasing popularity in Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
The response of the governments in some of the northeastern states in popularization of the modern day bamboo hut developed by the CBTC has been encouraging, the officials say. But they are still looking forward to a favourable response from the state government in Assam which is rich in forest resources like bamboo, wood and cane. “Although we are incessantly working for the popularization of this hut in Assam, proper initiatives that need be taken by the Government of Assam are sadly lacking as those in authority seem to be totally indifferent,” laments one of the officers in the centre, on the condition of anonymity.
Every cloud has its silver lining. Each and every official in the Guwahati office of the CBTC is now upbeat with the enthusiasm of making 5,500 bamboo huts in Chennai and Bihar. Director Salam says: “We received an order for constructing 5,000 newly developed modern day bamboo huts in tsunami-affected Tamil Nadu and 500 others in flood-affected Bihar. DoNER minister Mani Shankar Aiyar took this initiative after examining our technically constructed hut in the fourth North East Business Summit in Guwahati in September this year.”
The centre also received another order recently from the Department of Post to build 125,000 village post offices in the rural areas across the country.
Rahman of Panikhaiti village under Chandrapur development block, 17 kilometres from Dispur, the capital of Assam. The same condition disturbs more than three hundred families of his locality. For, they have to repair their flood damaged houses after each devastating flood. But the floods were more harsh to Uday Pegu of Dhakuakhana that claimed two lives of his family few years ago. When in a rainy day he saw that a flood devastated his ten-year-old shaky chang ghar (traditionally built by Mising community in Assam) within few minutes, he had nothing to do but swim across water to save his soul. Life became miserable for him after the flood. But rays of hope of living safely rejuvenated him when he learnt about the newly developed bamboo hut by the Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre, Guwahati (CBTC). Azibur also, while narrating that he had to chase three snakes from his broken hut to save his wife Jasmine and two daughters last summer, told us, “if the government provides such a hut for us in low rate we will be safe at least during floods.”
Officially named as ‘bamboo-hut’, this model residence was developed by the Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre with local forest resources like bamboo, wood and cane. Cane and wood are slightly used in the hut while bamboo remains the bulk of the raw materials.
“We have developed this bamboo-hut with the local resources which give you the taste of living in Nature,” says Kamesh Salam, director of the CBTC. He reveals that the centre projected this idea for the first time in 2002.
Although the hut reflects the technical innovation of modern-day civilization, originally it gives us the flavour of traditionalism of indigenous people of the Northeast. The CBTC director, who hails from Manipur, says that the idea came to their minds from the traditional huts of the tribes in Assam and the Northeast. The traditional huts, made of bamboo and wood, in Assam are recognized as environment friendly. “Bamboo and wood can absorb the high temperature. These elements also protect people from extreme cold. Bamboo and wood maintain a balanced temperature in the newly built hut which is conducive to everyone’s health,” says Salam.
However, it is recommendable that while the traditional bamboo huts in Assam and other states of the Northeast are built in an ordinary manner, CBTC gives it a systematic and technological touch. It is interesting to know that before using, each and every piece of bamboo, wood and cane is being prepared through a special method of chemical treatment. This method of chemical treatment makes the bamboo, cane and wood pieces long lasting adding to the durability of the hut.
“In this chemical treatment a liquid mixture of creosote and diesel in equal proportion is used where the pieces of bamboo, wood and cane are immersed for two to three days. This mixture is used as a preservative for the forest resources used in the hut,” says architect and deputy manager of CBTC, Anjal Goswami. He also says that the guaranteed durability of this hut is 80 years.
Besides this, another feature of great importance about these huts is that the architects can give an innovative modern touch while erecting them. All the parts of the hut are foldable. It also requires less man power as only a handful people can carry the folding bamboo walls, windows, doors and the GC sheets to a particular place and assemble them in an organized manner within three days. Even air-conditioners can be fitted in the plastered bamboo huts. Goswami says his group has built a 2,000 square feet modern air-conditioned community auditorium in the Kissama village near Kohima following an order of the Nagaland government.
The architect informs the modern bamboo hut is built in two structures. One model is constructed just over the ground, and the other is built on platforms above concrete posts. “While the first one is highly conducive to the earthquake-prone areas, the second is appropriately reliable to the inhabitants of flood-affected areas,” says another architect in the centre.
For these important features of the hut even the interested personnel of the Indian Army have been especially trained for weeks in Assam to make such huts during the periods of natural disasters like earthquake and flood.
When the building materials of the modern day concrete buildings are becoming costlier day by day, the natural resources of the bamboo hut remains cheaper, particularly in the northeastern states. Moreover, bamboo is a largely available forest resource in every state of the Northeast for which neighbouring countries like China and Thailand are projecting bilateral business agreement with India.
The non-AC model of a three-room hut costs between Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 while the cost of such a hut with air-condition facility is around Rs 3 lakh. In the past couple of years, both the models gained increasing popularity in Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
The response of the governments in some of the northeastern states in popularization of the modern day bamboo hut developed by the CBTC has been encouraging, the officials say. But they are still looking forward to a favourable response from the state government in Assam which is rich in forest resources like bamboo, wood and cane. “Although we are incessantly working for the popularization of this hut in Assam, proper initiatives that need be taken by the Government of Assam are sadly lacking as those in authority seem to be totally indifferent,” laments one of the officers in the centre, on the condition of anonymity.
Every cloud has its silver lining. Each and every official in the Guwahati office of the CBTC is now upbeat with the enthusiasm of making 5,500 bamboo huts in Chennai and Bihar. Director Salam says: “We received an order for constructing 5,000 newly developed modern day bamboo huts in tsunami-affected Tamil Nadu and 500 others in flood-affected Bihar. DoNER minister Mani Shankar Aiyar took this initiative after examining our technically constructed hut in the fourth North East Business Summit in Guwahati in September this year.”
The centre also received another order recently from the Department of Post to build 125,000 village post offices in the rural areas across the country.
