Bamboo forms a major non wood forest produce of the tropical forests of south and southeast Asia and provides livelihood requirements to a large number of forest fringe communities. Besides the traditional user groups – the artisans, bamboo is much sought by the paper and pulp industry. Together, the demand on the bamboo resources is substantial and it is projected that in the years to come, the demand would soon outrun the stock. This is particularly true in countries such as India where almost all the requirements of bamboo are met from the natural populations. The indiscriminate extraction of bamboo coupled with the large-scale habitat loss have seriously endangered the genetic resources of bamboo. In this chapter we review the status and threats to the bamboo genetic resources in the central Western Ghats, India and discuss the conservation of the genetic resources of two economically important species of bamboo, Bambusa arundinacea and Dendrocalamus strictus. Our study shows that the two species exhibit strikingly contrasting spatial patterns in the distribution of genetic diversity and that accordingly, strategies for the conservation of the genetic resources of the two species need to be addressed separately.