1 Plant, 100 Uses explores the many ways familiar Indian plants, leaves, fruits and trees have been part of everyday life — from food and farming to homes, traditions and natural remedies. Each story takes one plant and uncovers the surprising ways people have found it useful, often across generations.
A bamboo plant can look rather ordinary. It may grow gently beside a home, along a field or across the hills of Assam, commonly becoming so familiar that people stop noticing it.
But look a little closer, and the same plant can become a chair, a house, a basket, a musical instrument, paper, food, flooring or even a source of livelihood.
India is home to 136 bamboo species, of which 125 are indigenous. According to the Government of India, the country has 13.96 million hectares under bamboo and is the second richest country in the world in terms of bamboo diversity.
That versatility is perhaps best understood through people who have spent years working with it. In Jorhat, Assam, bamboo is not essentially a raw material for Prabhat Saikia. It has become the foundation of a business, a craft and a source of work for young artisans.
From a bamboo pole to a piece of furniture
When Saikia started a small bamboo and cane handicraft unit in 2006, he wanted to show that the plant growing abundantly around him could become more than an everyday utility.
A bamboo plant can look rather ordinary. Photograph: (Organicbazar)
His workshop now turns bamboo into furniture and decorative pieces, with around 20 young artisans working there. Some of them found a way to earn a living without leaving their villages for cities.
He also learnt that bamboo’s strength depends on how it is treated. Working with the Rainforest Research Institute in Jorhat, he trained in bamboo treatment techniques and worked on making his products more durable. That made it possible for his bamboo to move beyond traditional handicrafts into furniture, cottages, and architectural spaces.
The Government’s National Bamboo Mission lists construction, furniture, flooring, doors, windows, frames, trusses, and other building components among bamboo’s uses.
The Indian Institute of Wood Science and Technology also notes that bamboo can be harvested in a two to four year cycle and has been used in board and panel forms for more than 1,000 documented applications.
A home can begin with bamboo
In many parts of India, particularly the Northeast, bamboo has long been part of the way homes are built.
It can be used for walls, roofs, flooring, doors, windows, and structural components. Modern processing has also opened the door to laminated panels and engineered bamboo products.
The Government of India’s National Bamboo Mission lists species used for construction, furniture, basketry, food containers, musical instruments, and other applications.
This matters because bamboo is renewable and fast-growing. But using it responsibly still requires proper harvesting, treatment, and processing. Saikia’s experience is a useful reminder that only having bamboo is not enough. Skills and technology determine how much value can come from it.
It can reach the dining table too
Bamboo is not only something to build with.
Certain species produce edible shoots, which are eaten in several parts of India and across Asia. The National Bamboo Mission lists edible shoots among the uses of species such as Melocanna baccifera, Dendrocalamus asper, and Dendrocalamus giganteus.
The plant can also be made into food containers, kitchen products, and other household items. So, from the field to the kitchen, bamboo can have a place in everyday life.
From craft to paper and fabric
The usefulness of bamboo does not end when it leaves a craftsperson’s workshop.
It is used as a raw material for pulp and paper. It can also be processed into fibres and used in textile products.
The same plant can become a chair, a house, a basket, a musical instrument, paper, food, flooring or even a source of livelihood. Photograph: (Joynagar)
The Telangana government’s bamboo mission lists pulp and paper, textiles, furniture, construction products and even energy production among bamboo’s applications.
Its traditional uses are equally varied. Bamboo can become baskets, mats, lamps, storage products, and musical instruments. Different Indian species have their own uses, depending on their strength, size, and properties.
In Assam, Saikia has taken some of these familiar forms and given them a place in contemporary homes. His furniture has reached markets beyond the state, while his skills have taken him to international workshops in Nepal.
And then there is the land itself
Perhaps one of bamboo’s most important uses is one we cannot always see.
Its dense root system can help hold soil together and reduce erosion. Research and government-backed work in India has also explored bamboo for restoring degraded land.
The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser notes that a bamboo-based conservation system can reduce soil loss from 22 tonnes per hectare per year to 4.5 tonnes, while conserving 45 percent soil moisture. The same work records bamboo biomass production of 12 to 30 tonnes per hectare per year.
Government material on bamboo also highlights its potential for carbon sequestration because of its rapid biomass accumulation. The humble plant also plays a role in protecting the ground on which people farm and live.
One plant, many livelihoods
The most meaningful use of bamboo is not an object at all. It is the work created around it.
In Saikia’s Jorhat workshop, it passes through many hands before it becomes a finished chair or decorative piece. Artisans cut it, shape it, weave it, and polish it. Distributors take the finished products to new markets. Buyers take a piece of Assam into their homes.
His story shows what happens when a resource that people have grown up taking for granted is given skill, treatment, design, and a market.
The Government of India’s National Bamboo Mission has established hundreds of nurseries, treatment units, and product development and processing units as part of efforts to strengthen the bamboo economy. As of December 2024, the mission reported 528 product development and processing units and 104 treatment and preservation units.
So perhaps the phrase “100 uses” is not really about counting every possible thing bamboo can become.
It is about seeing the possibilities in something that has always been there.
For someone like Saikia, that possibility began with a humble bamboo pole in Assam. Today, it can become a chair in Delhi, a building component, a basket, a meal, a sheet of paper or a livelihood that allows an artisan to remain close to home.
In many parts of India, particularly the Northeast, bamboo has long been part of the way homes are built. Photograph: (www.vasoobambooarts.in)
And sometimes, a plant becomes most valuable when we learn to look at it differently.
Want to know how Prabhat Saikia turned Assam’s abundant bamboo into a healthy livelihood? Read his full story here.
