Essay on “Forest Based Industry in India” (3242 Words)

Essay on “Forest Based Industry in India” (3242 Words).

Forests provide us with different types of materials which are used as raw materials for certain industries. Those industries which use forest products as raw materials are called forest based industries.

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Paper, match, lac, sports goods, plywood, etc. are such industries.

Paper Industry:

Paper is one of the core industries and is linked to the basic human needs. Paper is the pre-requisite for education and literacy and its use is an index of advancement in these two fields as well as the overall well being of the society. This is the most important of all the forest based industries. Some people treat it as a chemical industry due to its manufacturing process and because of certain chemicals used for its manufacturing.

Still some other people include it in the group of agro-based industries because some of the agricultural products and residuals are used as raw materials. As large proportion of the basic raw materials is derived from the forests, it seems logical to treat it as a forest based industry.

The art of paper making was introduced in India by the Muslim rulers during the 10th century. The traditional craftsmen called kagzis making paper from gunny bags, rags and old records were regularly employed by the native rulers in Punjab, Kashmir, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and several other states. There is still a large number of small units producing handmade paper all over the country.

The first modern paper mill in the country was set up in 1812 at Serampore (West Bengal); the venture, however, failed and the industry made a beginning again in 1870 with the starting of the Royal Bengal Paper Mills at Ballygunj near Calcutta. Though the preferential treatment and the tariff protection granted to the industry in 1880 and 1925 respectively proved helpful in its expansion and World War II helped it still further, the growth was sluggish till Independence.

There are about 759 units which manufacture pulp paper. Board and news print out of which nearly 651 are in operation. The total installed capacity is nearly 128 lakh tonnes. In terms of geographical spread of paper mills in the country. Gujarat leads the tally with the maximum numbers of mills (130) followed by Uttar Pradesh (115).

Location:

The main factors that favour the location of the paper industry are the following:

1. Availability of raw materials

Pulp wood derived from soft-wooded trees are required for the manufacture of superior printing paper and newsprint. Since India has very little softwood, it depends largely on bamboo, sabai grass, bagasse, straw, waste paper and salal wood.

The chemicals required are caustic soda, soda ash, bleaching powder and Salk cake.

2. Power supply

3. Adequate supplies of soft and clean water

4. Nearness to centres of consumption.

Raw Materials:

This is a forest based industry and like sugar industry it is also a weigh-losing. The industry is therefore a raw material oriented. Paper is manufactured from a variety of raw materials including wood pulp, sabai and salai grasses, bamboo, rags, waste paper, and jute and bagasse- residue of sugar mills. Roughly about 8 tonnes of these raw materials are required to produce 1 tonne of paper. At present about 60.8 per cent of the total production is based on non- wood raw material and 39.2 per cent of wood.

The principal raw material used for paper, paper board and newsprint manufacture is cellulosic pulp. The industry requires small quantities of other materials like fillers, sizing materials and dyes. Coniferous wood, bamboo and grass are considered as ideal raw materials for the manufacture of paper pulp. Long fibre pulp with a high degree of flexibility and density is most suitable for paper manufacture.

The industry depended mostly on the forest based materials like bamboo, wood and grass till the end of 1970s. Depletion of these resources forced many mills to switch­over to other agro-residues/wastes like bagasse and straws of wheat and rice and linters of cotton in the 1980s and the sharp rise in the wood bamboo prices and strong opposition from the environmentalist lobby compelled them to use more of the agro-residues and wastes along with waste paper in the 1990s.

The Indian Industry is now primarily a tree-free raw material industry with nearly a third of the production based on agri-residues (straw and bagasse) and 28% on waste paper. Only 28 mills with 37% of the installed capacity are now based on wood and bamboo and this may further decrease in the coming years with nearly the entire new capacity addition being in the non-conventional agro-residues and wastes.

Bagasse has emerged as an important pulp making material in recent years. More than 450 sugar mills spread across the country produce over 50 lakh tonnes of bone-dried bagasse every year.

The Union Government recognising the importance of this material, has allowed 100% duty relief on paper produced with bagasse as raw material up to 75% atleast. Several mills have come up with bagasse as pulp material recently, for example, J K Corporation’s mill at Jaykaynagar, Tamil Nadu; Newsprint and Papers Ltd’s plant at Pugalur; and Mandya National Paper Mills Ltd’s mills at Belagola.

The main constraint in large scale use of bagasse for paper manufacturing is its widespread use as in- house fuel in vacuum pan sugar mills and in the Khandsari decentralised sector. Perhaps coal can replace bagasse as boiler fuel in sugar mills for which the transport system will have to be improved.

The paper mills in West Bengal are located in Titagargh, Kankinara, Naihati, Alambazar, Tribeni and Raniganj.

Distribution:

There are, at present 64 newsprint mills (four in the Central Public Sector, two in the State Public Sector and 58 in the Private Sector) with an installed capacity of about 1,204 mmt. The capacity utilisation of the news print industry is low at 55 per cent.

Maharashtra:

It has 71 paper and paperboard mills accounting for 17% of the country’s installed capacity and production. The paper mills are located at Ballarpur, Kalyan (Mumbai), Bhambhori, Duskheda (Jalgaon), Khopoli (Mumbai), Roha (Kolaba), Pande, Chinchwad (Pune), Kamptee, Malegaon (Nasik), Pravaranagar and Paithan (Aurangabad, 75,000 tonnes of news print and 60,00 tonnes of paper) and the paperbaord mills at Vikhroli, Goregaon and Kalyan all in Mumbai.

The industry uses a variety of raw materials including bamboo/hardwood (Ballarpur), bagasse, rags and imported pulp for paper manufacture and rice straw and bagasse for paperboard production.

Gujarat:

The State has 130 units contributing over 15% of India’s total production; the second largest after Maharashtra, larger units are located at Barejadi, Khadki, Utran (Surat), Vapi (capacity 75,000 tonnes of news print and 60,000 tonnes of paper), Navagam (Rajkot), Bharuch, Songadh, Marai, Gondal, Udvada and Barla. The state has 5 straw board units situated at Bilimora, Digendranagar, Ramol, Dungsi and Gangadhra and one paper grade pulp unit at Songadh.

Uttar Pradesh:

The state has 115 paper mills of which the larger ones are at Saharanpur, Basantnagar, Aghawanpur, Rampur, Raibareli, Lucknow, Nainital, Gajraula (Moradabad), Jagdishpur (Sultanpur) and Ujjani.

Besides these, there are 6 paperboard units located at Meerut, Modinagar, Saharanpur, Naini, Budaun and Mainpuri, together contributing about 14% of the capacity in the industry. Whereas bamboo, rags, paper scrap, sabai grass and conifer wood are used for producing paper, bagasse and wheat bran are used for straw board manufacture.

Tamil Nadu:

The state contributes about 10% of India’s total installed capacity. There are 31 units, of which the larger ones are at Swaminathapuram, Pashpathur, Vilamapatti, Erode, Mettupalayam, Charanmahadevi and Kagithapuram. The Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Ltd (TNPL) at Pugalur produces newsprint (one lakh tonnes/ year capacity). The state has large reserves of eta bamboo (Ochlandra brandissi), which is considered the best raw material for paper pulp.

Andhra Pradesh:

Though a late entrant in the field, Andhra Pradesh has emerged as a leading producer of paper and paperboard accounting for about 7% of the country’s total installed capacity and production. The large units in the state are located at Rajahmundry, Sirpur, Rangampeta, Maredubaka and Bhadrachalam. There are 19 smaller units scattered all over the state. Bamboo is the chief raw material used by the industry; the state’s total annually recoverable bamboo reserves are placed at 1.5 lakh tonnes.

Karnataka:

Karnataka’s share in the country’s total installed capacity and production amount to 5-6%. The paper mills are located at Dandeli, Bhadravati, Belagula, and Nanjangud. The Mysore Paper Mills Ltd (Bhadravati) has an installed capacity of 1.12 lakh tonnes (75,000 tonnes of newsprint and 37.000 tonnes of paper). All these, except Belagula, which uses bagasse, are bamboo based.

The state has 2.34 lakh tonnes of bamboo recovery every year. The paper board units at Munirabad, Harihar, Kushalnagar and Ramanagaram use bagasse. The Mysore Paper Mills, Bhadravati and West Coast Paper Mills, Oandeli have captive plantations / forest.

Madhya Pradesh:

The 21 paper mills at Amlai, Birgahani, Dhenka (Bilaspur), Bhopal, Indore, Nawapara (Raipur), Chengra, Shahdol, Sehore and other places account for about 5% of the country’s installed capacity and production. The paperboard mills are at Bhopal, Ratlam and Vidisha. Besides, the only newsprint unit in the country till 1981, the NEPA Ltd. is located at Nepanagar (75,000 tonnes capacity).

Its current production is about 50,000 tonnes a year. A special quality currency paper unit with an installed capacity of 28,000 tonnes is located at Hoshangabad. In general, the state provides a good base for the paper industry on account of abundance of cellulosic raw materials, viz, bamboo (3.73 lakh tonnes annually) salai wood, eucalyptus and other woods.

Orissa:

The four large units located at Brajrajnagar, Jaykaypur, Balgopalpur and Chowdwar and five smaller units possess about 4-5% of the country’s capacity and output. The state has more than 5 lakh tonnes of bamboo recovery annually providing a good base for the industry.

West Bengal:

West Bengal was the pioneer state in the paper and paper board industry and it is still an important producer of paper, contributing about 3-4% of the total output. There are 18 paper mills in the state situated at Titagarh (expanded by 95,000 tonnes), Ballavapur, Raniganj, Naihati, Chandrahati, Calcutta, Baranagar, Bansberia, Kalyani and Sheoraphuli. Calcutta is the largest centre of production.

The state has 6 units producing paper board. Bamboo and sabai grass obtained mostly from Assam and Bihar are used for paper manufacture and rice bran and waste from jute mills for the production of paper board, waste paper has been an important raw material of late.

Punjab:

Most of the mills are in Hoshiarpur, Sangrur, Sailakhurd and Rajpura.

Assam:

Assam has large areas under bamboo growth and supplies bamboo to neighbouring states, like West Bengal after
meeting its own requirements. Nowgaon has one of the largest paper mills of India. The other producing centres are Guwahati Cachar and Lumbing.

Haryana:

Haryana’s 18 mills mainly depend upon imported pulp and eucalyptus wood as raw material. Yamunanagar has the largest mill. Small units are functioning at Faridabad, Dharuhera, Jagadhari and Rohtak.

Others:

Bihar has 6 mills with a total installed capacity of 87.6 thousand tonnes. Dalmianagar, Patna, Darbhanga, Samastipur, J3arauni are the chief producers. Himachal Pradesh also has 6 small units. Borokwala and Kala Amb are the main centres. Kerala (Punalur, Ernakulam, Mavoor, Rayanpuram and Kozhikhode), Rajasthan |Kota), Meghalaya (Shillong), Nagaland (Mokekchong) also produce paper.

Problems of Paper Industry:

There are certain problems with paper industry of India. The most serious is the problem of lack of raw material for producing good quality paper and newsprint. Many of the chemicals used by the industry have to be imported and it results in higher cost of production.

The problem of power shortage is also there with some mills. Several types of assistance have been provided by the government to this industry even then the demand for newsprint has not been met and it is fulfilled through import of both paper and pulp.

Newsprint:

In 1955 newsprint production was started by National Newsprint and Paper Mills (NEPA Ltd.) at Nepanagar in Madhya Pradesh. Till 1981 it was the only mill in the country manufacturing the newsprint. Between 1981-1987 three more newsprint mills were set up at Nellore (Andhra Pradesh), Mysore (Karnataka) and Pugalure (Tamil Nadu). There are nearly 26 newsprint mills in the country with an installed capacity of 6.4 lakh tonnes.

At present there are four large public sector units, namely, National Newsprint and Paper Mills Ltd (NEPA Ltd), Nepanagar (MP), Hindustan Newsprint Ltd (HNL), Kottayam Kerala); Mysore Paper Mills Ltd (MPML), Bhadravati (Karnataka); and Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Paper Ltd (TNPL), Kagithapuram (Tamil Nadu).

Match Industry:

The first match factory was set up at Ahmedabad in 1921. The Western India Match Company (WIMCO) came into existence in 1923 and it set up five factories at Bareilly (U.P.), Kolkata, Chennai, Ambarnath (Mumbai) and Dhubri (Assam). These five factories of WIMCO along with Assam Match Co. (AMCO.) produce about 65 per cent of-match in India.

The remaining 35 per cent match is produced by decentralised small scale units and cottage industry. There are about one thousand small scale units manufacturing match. The production has shown varying trends.

Localisation:

The chief raw materials used in this industry are soft timber and paper for making sticks and boxes. The main chemicals used are phosphorus potassium chlorate, paraffin, potash, timber, paper etc. Earlier, most of the timber requirements were met by imports.

Now, locally available wood like genwa, pipira, dhup, didu, bakoda, mango, senial and solai is used and imports are drastically reduced. But most of the chemicals are still imported. Match factory requires cheap and skilled labour because one-third of the cost of manufacturing match is on labour.

This industry in India is important industry because it deals with everyday needs and also is good earner of revenue for the government. More than 70 per cent of the country’s requirements are made in factories, the rest by the cottage industry. It is highly modernised factory industry and is decentralised cottage industry. This is most localised in South India and Maharashtra.

The raw material of match is basically a particular type of wood. To a greater extent industry is dependent on forest. Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Chinglepet, Tinnevelly (Tamil Nadu), Kolkata, Hyderabad, Dhubri (Assam), Bilaspur, Jabalpur (M.P.), Ahmedabad and Bareilly ‘are main centre of match production. Western India Match Co (WIMCO) is a multinational company engaged in manufacturing of match. Earlier match were imported from Sweden but now there is no import and we fulfil our requirements locally.

Lac Industry:

Lac is obtained from an insect named Cerria lacca which secretes a resin. The lac insect is cultivated mainly in India and Thailand. This insect lives on trees which grow in areas at an elevation of 300 metres above sea level and having 12°C temp, and 150 cm annual rainfall.

Resin is known as stick lac in its crude form and shellac or lac in the refined form. Lac is used for a variety of purposes including gramophone records, french polish, electrical insulating materials, shellac moulded articles, micanite, hats, grinding wheels, adhesives, cements, wood turning, metal enamelling, printing ink, paints and varnishes, photographic equipment, bangles, toys and many more.

Lac is the important forest product of India. About 25 per cent of the total world production was in India but slowly its share has declined. Lac is grown mainly in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. Chotanagpur Plateau is the biggest lac producing region of the India. Lac is used in the manufacture of floor polish, gramophone records, electrical insulating materials, hats, grinding wheels, printing ink etc. India is exporter of lac and lac products were exported to USA, Russia, UK, Germany, France etc.

Rubber Goods Industry:

Rubber goods are manufactured using natural rubber, synthetic rubber and reclaimed rubber. Rubber has been gaining increasing importance in every aspect of life and in war and peace rubber plays an important role. The beginning of the rubber industry is traced back to 1920 when a general rubber goods factory was established in Kolkata. Dunlop Rubber Company was started there.

This industry made good progress after Second World War and many units were established later on. At present the rubber goods industry comprises 32 tyre units, 220-medium scale units, and 5,500 small-scale units. It offers direct employment to nearly 4 lakh people. The major rubber goods produced by the industry are tyres and tubes of all kinds, surgical gloves, conveyor and vee belts, sports goods etc. Tyres and tubes constitute the most important segment of this industry.

Raw Materials:

Natural rubber, synthetic rubber and reclaimed rubber are the chief raw materials required by the industry and India have these in abundance. Natural rubber is found in three states of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The development of automobile industry has considerably increased the demand for tyres and tubes. The rubber industry is concentrated in the Hooghli belt and in the hinterland of Mumbai. The role of synthetic rubber has increased with the increase in demand of natural rubber. The first synthetic rubber factory was started in Bareilly in 1955.

Leather Goods Industry:

The country, being the largest holder of livestock in the world, has a fairly large availability of skins and hides. This industry occupies a very important place in respect of foreign exchange earnings and employment generation. Since early times India has been known to be manufacturer of leather and leather goods. Tanning of leather is very important part of leather industry.

The word tanning is generally used to cover a variety of processes which convert hides and skins into leather. At the time of independence, there were about 32 organised tanneries. The quality wise availability of skins is superior in Tamil Nadu and other areas of Southern part than Northern parts.

Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are the largest producers of cattle hides. Tanning of hides and skins and manufacturing of leather goods is concentrated in Kolkata, Agra, Kanpur, Chennai, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Bhopal, Tonk etc.

Indian leather industry is spread over in the organised as well as unorganised sectors. The small scale, cottage and artisan sector account for over 75 per cent of the total production.

The National Leather Development Programme (NLDP) with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) assistance of about 17 million US dollars has been implemented by the Government for integrated development of the leather industry through the selected institutional agencies in the country.

National Leather Technology Mission (NLTM) has been also started in this direction. A new scheme, titled Indian Leather Development Programme (ILDP) has been approved under the Ninth Plan.

Under it a new scheme namely Tannery Modernisation Scheme has been introduced with effect from January 18, 2000. Under the scheme there is provision to provide 30 per cent of cost of machines required for modernisation as interest free assistance to small scale units with a ceiling of Rs. 28 lakh. In case of non-small scale units the assistance is limited to 20 per cent of cost of machines with a ceiling of Rs. 35 lakh.

Over the last 20 years and specially in last 10 years it has become an area of export-thrust with footwear having been identified as an area of extreme forces. Export from the leather sector today account for around four percent of India’s export. Russia, USA, UK, Japan, Germany, France, Canada and Yugoslavia are buyers of Indian leather and leather goods.