Jute geotextiles

PrelimsCurrent affairs on this: Materials, nanotechnology and advanced manufacturing

Jute's oldest market is sacking and its newest is civil engineering, where a geotextile woven from it is laid into the ground rather than over it.

Where jute geotextile is laid

Where	What it does
Embankment and riverbank slopes	Holds the slope until vegetation roots
Degraded land	Aids vegetation
Road and railway formations	Goes under the formation

The fabric only has to last until the ground is held by other means, so it is left to rot.

A fabric holding a slope until vegetation roots need not outlast the plants, so here biodegradability is the point rather than a defect.
Jute geotextile protects embankment and riverbank slopes, aids vegetation on degraded land and goes under road and railway formations.
The fibre comes from Corchorus capsularis, white jute, and Corchorus olitorius, tossa jute.

UPSC has asked

Prelims 2020: geotextiles in environmentally sustainable rural roads

Background reading: PIB, 7 Sep 2026: Jute: India's Golden Fibre, Sustaining livelihoods through innovative policy interventions (opens in a new tab)