evidence: <p class="title">The latest budgetary allocation of Rs 1,290 crore for the National Bamboo Mission (NBM) is a significant step to improve the country's bamboo economy, which was so far shackled by legal and regulatory restrictions. In December 2017, the government, in an amendment to the Indian Forest Act, (IFA), 1927, exempted bamboo grown in non-forest areas from definition as a tree. Bamboo, though taxonomically a grass, was legally defined as a 'tree' under the IFA. The twin objectives of the latest amendment aim to promote bamboo cultivation in non-forest areas in order to increase rural incomes and expand the country's green cover. As a result, this dispenses with the requirement to obtain felling/transit permit for commercial use of bamboo and would transform bamboo cultivation and bamboo economy.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Bamboo was perceived all along as a wild growth in forest areas and not as a cultivated crop that could be harnessed for profit. Commercial cultivation of bamboo will replace wood as the material of choice for building houses. Success on this score will help stop felling trees, which would otherwise be used as timber, and save the environment from further loss of tree cover.