Johnson Varghese’s quest for highlighting the completely different makes use of of bamboos and its long-term advantages led him to construct a 17-acre farm in Kerala’s Wayanad district that has been going through extreme desertification. He has collected and conserved 142 uncommon species from completely different elements of India.

On the finish of an exhausting day, Johnson Varghese shut his pepper store in Pulpally city of Wayanad district. The Kerala resident would then engross himself in unleashing his ideas onto a canvas. Impressed by the forested environment, he would typically paint bamboo on most of his acrylic and oil work.

Learning deeper, he understood how quite a few bamboo tribes differ from one another – whereas some species have giant and straight culms, some are smaller and extra versatile. Some have thick partitions and stiff hair on the nodes, whereas some boast completely different leaf textures which may go unnoticed to the untrained eye.

“Nearly all bamboos have completely different leaves, shoots, and buildings. I used to be so fascinated by them that I made a decision to gather them one after the other,” the 53-year-old tells The Higher India.

Past his work, Johnson travelled far and broad to preserve bamboo varieties. At present, he’s a proud proprietor of the 17-acre plantation that boasts 10,000 vegetation together with a uncommon assortment of 142 species collected from completely different elements of the nation.

His collections embrace the commercially used fast-growing Guadua angustifolia selection, Dendrocalamus brandissi which grows greater than two toes in a day; Melocanna baccifera that’s used for making medicinal merchandise; and decorative species just like the Golden Bamboo (Schizostachyum brachycladum), and Buddha Stomach.

In dialog with The Higher India, Johnson speaks about why generations immediately should be as obsessive about bamboo for a sustainable future.

From portray to planting uncommon varieties

In 1992, Johnson graduated from Calicut with a Bachelor’s of Science. He got here again to his hometown to take care of his father who had Parkinson’s illness. Instantly, he needed to take up the duty of their household’s pepper spice store.

In 2010, he found a newfound ardour for conserving bamboo. Quickly after, he discovered himself traversing by means of bamboo forests within the Northeastern area of the nation. “Northeast has an excellent assortment of bamboo. Right here, you see bamboo in all places and virtually in each family,” he explains.

Johnson began accumulating bamboo species from throughout the Northeast and different elements of the nation together with Nagaland, Manipur, Sikkim, Arunachal, Assam, Tripura, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra.

Taking the small shoots of bamboo, he has arrange his personal dense forest of 10,000 vegetation that embrace uncommon varieties like Bambusa affinis, Bambusa Assamica, Bambusa Vulgaris, Tulda Variegated, and Phyllostachys Bamboosoides.

Due to its beneficial heat and tropical local weather, Johnson was capable of arrange a big Bambusetum by planting a large species of uncommon bamboo in Pulpally. In the home itself, he has planted 80 odd species in pots.

Conserving essentially the most versatile plant

Nevertheless, accumulating bamboo has been greater than a ardour for Johnson.

Over the previous few many years, the residents alongside the Kerala-Karnataka border of Wayanad district, particularly in villages on the northeastern tip of the Deccan Plateau together with Pulpally, Mullankolly, and Poothadi have been going through desertification owing to a pointy decline in rainfall, lack of natural matter in soil, unscientific land use, conversion of wetlands and absence within the cover. 

Johnson believes farming with Bamboo may very well be a super and efficient methodology for a sustainable mannequin to examine the desertification tendencies of the area.

“Bamboo is likely one of the quickest rising plant species. It is usually a low-cost methodology to soak up an enormous quantity of carbon. It produces about 35 p.c extra oxygen than another plant creating an oxygen park in nature for future generations. It will possibly enhance the moisture content material and the natural carbon within the soil,” he mentions.

Aside from its low-cost carbon sequestration property, Johnson says, “Bamboo goes to be the subsequent timber on this planet due to its versatile utilization. It’s primarily utilized in building like flooring and scaffolding, furnishings making, as edible meals, biofuel, materials, fabric, and paper-making. It is usually medicinally helpful, and has non secular and decorative worth.”

“Regardless of this, not many are concerned about its conservation. Folks don’t recognise the worth of bamboo. It may be simply replicated throughout geographies. At present, if you happen to plant one shoot, you should have 10 new vegetation a 12 months later. So, bamboo could be simply cultivated,” he provides.

At present, as he traverses by means of the tall dense jungle of bamboo, he displays on a well-liked saying, the bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.

“I’ve spent months within the bamboo forest that I’ve created. I sleep in its shade. Every time I journey by means of the bamboo vegetation, I really feel the cool breeze on my face even in summer time. I’ve had peaceable nights of sleep in the midst of this forest,” he says.

“However cultivating these bamboos has made me realise that in the end, each bamboo bends right down to survive sturdy winds and stays nonetheless and tall. If folks perceive this and don’t maintain a inflexible character on a regular basis, the world may develop into a greater place to reside,” he provides.

Edited by Padmashree Pande. All photographs: Jhonson Varghese.