Green paper

The paper industry is accepting responsibility by looking at ways to reduce the damage it is known to cause to local ecology.

Infamous and abused, the paper industry is often accused of contributing to the growing shortage of the colour green in the country.

Now with paper consumption set to escalate to 10 million tonnes by 2010 from the current 7.9 million tonnes, paper mills in the country are spending crores of rupees on research and development (R&D) activity to come up with innovative methods to increase productivity without decreasing forest land. In fact, paper is now being called an agro-product.

The Indian paper industry is growing at a rate three times faster than the rest of the world. The last five years have witnessed a yearly growth of 7 per cent, which is expected to grow up to 9 per cent over the next three years.

A major concern though is the shortage of raw material for the mills. Owing to this, manufacturing majors have set up R&D units to develop technology that will enable increased productivity without affecting forests.

Paper manufacturing major ITC has its own R&D centre in Andhra Pradesh, where they have developed a sapling that increases productivity by almost 100 per cent. The company spent a total of Rs 4 crore in 2006-07 on R&D alone.

The paper industry is even sprinkling in a bit of corporate social responsibility in its attempts to tackle the raw material problem. Manufacturing majors like ITC, JK Paper, Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills and West Coast Paper Mills have identified areas close to their mills where they supply saplings to farmers and encourage them to grow them on a part of their farmland.

Since the saplings have great productive potential, the practice is beneficial to both the farmer and the company.

Social forestry is another area where paper mills are increasingly becoming active. Below poverty line farmers, as defined by the government of India, are given land, saplings and technology required to grow trees and once they are ready with their product, the companies buy the wood at market rate from them.

Pradeep Dhobale, divisional chief executive, ITC says, "Out of the 65,000 hectares of land that we have identified for growing saplings, 10,000 hectares have been allotted to below poverty line farmers."

JK Paper's mill in Orissa is also accompanied by an R&D facility that is also following the same pattern for gaining wood. The agro-forest practice is catching on fast, indicative in the increase in the land holding of the companies. Between 1995 and 2005, ITC had 43,000 hectares. In 2006 alone, they accomplished 23,000 hectares.

Paper companies along with the Indian Paper Manufacturers Association (IPMA) are also rooting for scaling up farmer activity as well as greening the country.

IPMA is in talks with the government to allow it to acquire degraded forest land and rejuvenate it for planting trees, an activity that would also assist in job creation.

With growth that measures not in money alone, it is no wonder that the industry is tackling all odds to change its colour to green.