Jute is an eco-friendly and bio-degradable natural product with no adverse effect on the environment. The processing of jute varieties such as Corchorus capsularis - white jute (Sada paat) and Hibiscus cannabinus (Mesta paat) are mainly used for jute cultivation in West Bengal nowadays.
After harvesting the jute plants, jute fibres are extracted by retting. Retting is the use of micro-organisms and moisture on plants to dissolve cellular tissues surrounding fibre bundles so the fibre can be separated from the stem. The retting process consists of bundling jute stems together and immersing them in water. Water retting is a century old but the most popular process in extracting fine fibres.
After the retting process, stripping of the fibre begins. The non-fibres are scraped off, then the fibres are grabbed from within the jute stem.
When stripping of the jute fibre is complete, extracted jute stalks are dried in the open air, washed with water and again dried on bamboo poles. The resultant fibre is then sold off to markets/mills to produce various produce such as crafts, jute geo-textile, etc.
Use of jute as a geo-textile instead of synthetic man-made materials is increasing all over the world. In India till now there have been 270 cases where jute geo-textile is applied. Jute geo-textile is used for river bank protection. In road construction jute geo-textile can be used to decrease the thickness of the pavements and thus the cost of road construction reduces also.
Jute geo-textile is an exceptional product to prevent landslides as it can be draped upon undulated surfaces so the detached soil particles won’t be able to slip down the slope. Jute geo-textile plays a very important part in stabilizing destabilized mines. Jute geo-textile is used at the Northern Coalfield and the collieries of Andhra to recover the greenery of the area.
