Living on stilts in North Tripura
The traditional life and dwellings of the Reang tribe in Tripura hang in a precarious balance
T
SANGUR, PUNJAB
|FRI, AUG 10, 2018
Lives and work interlaced with bamboo
From Uttarakhand to Assam, Arunachal Pradesh to Tamil Nadu, and across several other states, people in rural India have for long worked with various types of bamboo. Some transport it over long distances to split it for contractors, others use it to make baskets and brooms, and some weave with it to challenge caste-based occupations. But making bamboo products is a demanding task with increasingly poor returns, forcing many to migrate to cities for work. Here are PARI's stories on the universe of bamboo in rural India
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![‘I am unable to sell [chhaj] in this heat’](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fproduction.ruralindiaonline.org%2Fuploads%2FHP_COVER_IMAGE_ST_I_am_unable_to_sell_chhaj_in_this_heat_1377533fb1.jpg&w=1080&q=75)
‘I am unable to sell [chhaj] in this heat’
Despite falling demand for handmade baskets, Krishna Rani has held on to her decades long family craft of making chhaj. However, heatwaves in Punjab’s Fazilka district, throw up new challenges to her work
September 04, 2025 | Sanskriti Talwar
Trapped by climate change in the Brahmaputra
The seppa, bair, darki, duyer, diyaar are just some of the indigenous bamboo fishing traps that Jalal Ali crafts for a living. But truant monsoons have shrunk Assam’s many waterbodies, and the demand for fishing traps has fallen sharply, and so has his income
October 17, 2024 | Mahibul Hoque
‘Who knew the lack of rain could kill my art?’
Sanjay Kamble, a farmer and craftsman from Kerle village in western Maharashtra, makes intricate irlas (bamboo raincoats) by hand. Decreasing rainfall over the last decade and the availability of plastic raincoats have made it difficult for him to pursue his craft
June 16, 2024 | Sanket Jain
The Bihari bamboo basket maker
Baban Mahato is a master at crafting a duli -- a very large bamboo basket used to store paddy in West Bengal. He speaks in hand measures and traditional weights when describing his work – making tall and wide baskets to store the paddy harvest. From Bihar, craftspersons like him have been migrating to neighbouring states to make bamboo baskets for over a hundred years
April 19, 2024 | Shreya Kanoi
Darrang's vanishing bamboo basket makers
The traditional basket weavers of Na-mati village in Darrang district, are facing fierce competition from plastic sacks. The loss of livelihood is forcing many to migrate to other states in search of work
April 4, 2024 | Mahibul Hoque
The last chukker of the polo ball craftsman
Ranjit Mal is the only person in Deulpur census town of Howrah district who can craft a polo ball from bamboo rhizome – a skill that has lost its relevance as machine-made fibreglass balls have taken over. But the memory and feel of the craft that earned him a livelihood for four decades, endures with him
December 15, 2023 | Shruti Sharma
Jambhali’s jhopdi architects
Building a jhopdi – a hut made with mainly wood, bamboo and thatch, calls for a deep knowledge of local customs and sustainable practices. Maharashtra farmers, Vishnu and Narayan put themselves to the test
May 3, 2023 | Sanket Jain
Tshering Bhutia and his love of making bows
In Sikkim’s Karthok village, an 83-year-old traditional bow-maker speaks about his craft in this video
January 28, 2023 | Jigyasa Mishra
Bastar’s bamboo-barrelled guns
At the annual Goncha festival in Chhattisgarh, local Adivasi communities have a unique guard of honour
November 29, 2022 | Thamir Kashyap
Tshering: straight-arrow bow maker of Pakyong
High-tech devices rule the archery market in Sikkim, but 83-year-old Tshering Dorjee Bhutia still makes bows and arrows the old-fashioned way, in a state whose archers have represented India in three Olympics
February 18, 2022 | Jigyasa Mishra
Ichalkaranji torans: gelatine, gods, greetings
At 70, Muralidhar Jawahire of Maharashtra’s Ichalkaranji town still painstakingly makes paper-bamboo torans – decorative door hangings – and retains a sense of pride in a craft no one wants to learn anymore
July 8, 2021 | Sanket Jain
Fading out: Maniram's flutes, Orchha's forests
Maniram Mandawi, a flute-maker from the Gond Adivasi community in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district, recalls a time when forests were rich in animals, trees and bamboo for his signature swinging flute.
February 24 , 2021 | Priti David
Locked down in Telangana — a basket case
The Covid-19 lockdown has halted the basket trade in Telangana’s Kangal village. For now, basket makers of the Yerukuka ST community are relying on some agricultural work, and rice from the PDS and relief packages
May 13, 2020 | Harinath Rao Nagulavancha
Wilting mahua, wasted baskets, silent haats
The Covid-19 lockdown has shredded the fragile economy of the Kamars, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group in Chhattisgarh, who depend on a trickle of income from weaving baskets and selling mahua flowers
April 15, 2020 | Purusottam Thakur
The bards of Nuapada and the goddess of grains
Although their craft tradition is waning and needs state support, the Debgurus in Odisha continue making idols and objects with paddy, and go from village to village reciting the Laxmi Purana
February 17, 2020 | Ipsita Ruchi
Baskets made with a different vision
Debahala Chakma of Rajivnagar in Mizoram, a visually impaired craftsman, has made intricate baskets for a living for 50 years using touch and memory, and says he can still make even a house of bamboo
July 25, 2019 | Lokesh Chakma
The last ringal weaver of Jaiti
Nain Ram Bajela, who makes bamboo products in rural Uttarakhand, says his work demands patience, like any art. But due to low returns and a lack of state support, his sons have moved on to other work
February 21, 2018 | Arpita Chakrabarty
Making baskets in English
This Dalit hamlet in Bihar's Banka district is called English, and all the residents here have the same last name. Three generations ago, they gave up burning bodies and took up the more respectable occupation of making baskets
November 11, 2017 | Shreya Katyayini
The bamboo-splitters of Dhubri
Mainuddin Pramanik of Kuntir island on the Brahmaputra in Assam comes to Dhubri town every day to work as a bamboo-splitter. But the trade is in decline and few other options are available to daily wage workers
October 23, 2017 | Ratna Bharali Talukdar
The many baskets of Mako Lingi
A basket weaver and an Idu Mishmi elder, Mako Lingi of Ahunli village in Arunachal Pradesh, remembers a time when barter was a part of life and basket-weaving was necessary for survival
October 11, 2017 | Sweta Daga
Bala’s baskets, brooms and blinds
Madurai-based P. R. Bala has been making bamboo products for 22 years. This centuries-old family occupation is demanding and barely profitable, but the personal rewards, he says, are worth the toil
October 6, 2017 | Dorairaj V.
'All migrants are like stray dogs'
Kamla and other Paharias of Bolangir, Odisha, struggle to be recognised as Adivasis and access their rights
July 13, 2016 | Purusottam Thakur
Make in India – with bamboos and leaves
Farmers, labourers and shepherds in rural Odisha wear delicately woven ‘rain hats’ while working. Made by Adivasis, they’re sold by small vendors, who carry them on bicycles across long distances
July 6, 2017 | P. Sainath
Biswas and the bamboos on his bike
Kamla and other Paharias of Bolangir, Odisha, struggle to be recognised as Adivasis and access their rights
February 6, 2015 | P. Sainath
Visible Work, Invisible Women: and gathering their lives (panel 6)
This panel of P. Sainath’s curated, online photo exhibition, depicting rural women’s labour, shows how women use forest produce like grass and bamboo to make baskets, brooms and more
July 23, 2014 | P. Sainath
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