In India, the diversity of bamboos is mainly confined to the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, West Bengal in the northeast region; Uttarakhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh in the central region; Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu in the Southern Peninsular region including the Western Ghats. In northeast India, bamboos are found in tropical, sub-tropical and temperate forests with several endemic species. Some species are found in the high altitudes of Himalayan region also. Important species found in this area are Bambusa nutans, Dendrocalamus hamiltonii, D. parishii, D. strictus, Drepanastachyum falcatum, Phyllostachys aurea, P. Bambusoides and Thamnocalamus spathiflorus etc., The species like Pseudoxytenanthera ritcheyi, Oxytenanthera monadelpha, O. bourdilonii, Teinostachyum wightii and all species representing the genera Ochlandra are endemic to Peninsular India.

Kerala part of the Western Ghats is one of the major diversity centres for bamboo species coming only next to Arunachal Pradesh. There are 28 species of bamboo identified in Kerala, among which five species come under the threatened category. The main species found in Kerala are Bambusa bambos, Ochlandra travancorica (OT), Dendrocalamus strictus etc. Kerala has 11 types of reeds (Ochlandra genus), which are thin-walled bamboos used mostly for weaving by traditional artisans.

In the Andaman Islands, bamboos are mainly found in Andaman semi-evergreen and Andaman hilltop stunted evergreen littoral forests. The common species is Gigantochloa andamanica found as bamboo brakes associated with Andaman's moist deciduous forests. The climbing bamboo, Dinochloa scandens var. andamanica is found in the ecotone regions of Andaman giant evergreen forests and Andaman tropical evergreen forests intermingled with trees. Neololeba atra is distributed in the tropical evergreen forests and the genus Schizostachyum is distributed in the ecotone regions of the Andaman semi-evergreen forests or found as a component of Andaman hilltop stunted evergreen littoral forests. Bamboos that are endemic to Andaman Islands are Dinochloa scandens var. andamanica, Dinochloa nicobariana, Pseudobambusa kurzii, Schizostachyum andamanicum, Schizostachyum kalpongianum and Schizostachyum rogersii. The endemic species found in the Nicobar Islands is Dinochloa nicobariana (Car Nicobar, Katchal, Great Nicobar Islands). In addition to the native species, Dendrocalamus giganteus, D. strictus, Bambusa bambos, B. vulgaris, Thyrostachys oliveri, Meloccana baccifera is also introduced to the Islands for cultivation.