Paper Making in India

 

Raw materials like wood pulp, bamboo, salai and sabai grass, as well as molasses and bagasse, are used for paper production in India. It naturally leads to slow destruction of forests in the country. It is also true that India has been steadily losing its forest cover except in the reserved forests. This has undesirable consequences such as soil erosion, decrease in water retained by soil and its slow discharge that feeds the rivers. Many of the perennial rivers are drying up once the rainy season is over and ground water level is going down in many parts of the country. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to look for new resource for paper making.

 

Late Shri Bashishwar Sen was a renowned plant-physiologist, who founded the Vivekananda Laboratory in Almora, Uttarakhand, He was awarded Padma Bhushan for his contribution to agriculture and is known as one of the fathers of Green Revolution in India. He imported Star Grass, known for its extremely fast growth and soil-holding capacity, from an African country named Niasaland, and popularized it. It is now used widely as a fodder for domestic animals. Damodar Valley Corporation has been using it for preventing soil erosion on its dams and embankments.

 

Shri Sen also researched its properties. He concluded that Star Grass mixed with other wild grasses and weeds could make a good ingredient for paper making. This particular lead has never been developed by our paper industry and agricultural research establishments.

 

The main purpose of writing this short piece is to draw attention of our paper industry.