Potential of Bamboo in Sustainable Development‪.‬

Introduction Sustainable development (Carlos J. Castro, 2004) is widely acknowledged as a key concept for humanities future. Sustainability calls for balancing short term business interest and long term development of both the society and company itself. It involves the simultaneous pursuit of economic, social and environmental objectives (Markus will, 2005). After more than 200 years of industrialization in the Western world and more than 50 years of 'development' in the Third World, the benefits delivered by the grand design of progress and modernity are, at best, ambiguous. Despite phenomenal advances in science, technology, medicine and agricultural production, the promise that 'development' would eradicate world poverty remains unfulfilled in several parts of the globe, especially in the Third World (Subhabrata Bobby Banerjee, 2003). Even the biggest economies shiver with small up and down in the industry. Reason behind this ambiguity is that the sustainability aspect is not being addressed properly in fast moving development efforts (Brian Kermath, 2007). Sustainable development refers to the equity, in particular concerning the todays's and future generations as defined by Brundtland Commission (WCED, 1987).This true for the resources as well as for any business. If we consider the sustainability of wood resource around the globe, availability of industrial wood from natural forests has been on decline for many years. This has raised a growing concern to save forests. Consequently the wood based industry as well as the opportunities in this area have also affected to a large extent. Wood is largely being replaced by plastics, wherever possible. However the environmental hazards of the plastics always keep a hanging sword. On the other hand the strength properties of the plastics can never be compared with the industrial wood. Even the timbers available from fast growing plantation species generally have lower strength properties, dimensional stability and service life. Bamboo is renewable, abundantly available, low cost and environment friendly (Azmy H.J. Mohamed et al., 2007) wood resource that creates an eye of hope for the struggling wood based industry with its excellent strength (A.C. Sekhar et al, 1962; Limaye, V.D., 1952). It has tremendous economic potential with its significant applications and innovative products. Since the bamboo is widely available across the different parts of India, it offers great opportunities to the micro, small and medium scale enterprises (Markus Will, 2008). Since the bamboo resource is widely available across the rural domains and industrial effort requires a lot of labour, bamboo has a great potential to offer job opportunity and income source to the rural masses. This can ultimately lead to the sustainable development of rural folks (V. Sorna Gowri, 2003;