Centre to use rubber as social fencing along Indo-Bangla border

KOCHI: The Centre is examining a project proposal to use natural rubber for “social fencing” along the Indo-Bangladesh border.

A project to use natural rubber as a “social fencing” along the 850 km border between Tripura and Bangladesh was recently developed by the Rubber Board in association with Tripura government and the BSF. The project report was submitted to the commerce ministry recently.

“We have given the report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister Shivraj Patil,” Union minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh said here, adding “We hope that they will react to the proposal soon”.

Apart from being a social fencing mechanism, the rubber plantations will provide a legitimate source of income to the people living in the border areas. Already 40 km of the border has been covered by rubber plantations. Around 7,500 hectares is the area identified for plantation by the project.

Mr Ramesh said that new rubber plantations would come up in Tripura, Assam and other North Eastern states. Kerala accounts for 93 per cent of the rubber production and the share of north eastern states is 5 per cent at present. The plan is to increase it to 10 per cent in the next 10 years, he said.