Dumping plastic to adopt bamboo

A Sikkim youth promotes handcrafted bamboo items to earn a living and provide employment to many. His mission is to raise awareness against plastic use, writes Prasanta Mazumdar

- Prasanta Mazumdar

FROM telling stories to visitors about Sikkim’s tourist sites and their historical significance to promoting handcrafted bamboo utility items as an alternative to plastic, Indra Kari Subba has made a name for himself by contributing to the organic state’s sustainable future.

Sikkim is home to over 20 species of bamboo, which is central to the Himalayan state’s culture, ecology and economy. Subba is one of the few people who made an effort to tap this potential, ensuring livelihood to many, mostly women, and school and college dropouts.

Born in the remote Thingling Khechuperi village in Gyalshing district of west Sikkim, located 116 km from capital Gangtok, Subba became a tourist guide as a college student, not by choice but due to financial difficulties as his father with a meagre income struggled to run the family.

In 2013, two years after completing post-graduation in humanities, Subba attended a 45-day training organised by the forest department in Gangtok for unemployed youth, where they were taught how to craft bamboo and wooden handicrafts.

The session changed his life but not before he continued working as a tourist guide for two more years.