Paper Industry in India

Paper is one of the core industries which is tied to basic human necessities. The first paper industry was started in 1832 at Serampore in Hooghly district of West Bengal. It is a prerequisite for education and reading, and its use is a barometer of progress in these domains as well as societal well-being. The most important of all the forest-based industries is this one. Because of its manufacturing method and the chemicals used in it, some people consider it to be a chemical industry. The largest paper producing state in India is West Bengal, whereas Maharashtra has the most number of Paper Mils in India. 

Others classify it as an agro-based industry because some agricultural products and residuals are used as raw materials. Because forests provide a substantial share of the essential raw materials, it appears logical to regard it as a forest-based enterprise. If you want to know, paper is made from which tree, the wood used in the paper is made from Eucalyptus, Subabul, and Casuarina and is supplied from carefully managed plantations.

Growth and Development: Paper Making in India

Traditional craftspeople known as Kagzis have been making paper in India since the tenth century as a modest village enterprise. Gunny bags, rags, ropes, and other materials were used to make paper. This industry was unable to withstand the onslaught of machine-made paper and suffered a significant decrease. However, a portion of it has managed to survive, and a huge number of small businesses continue to produce handmade paper today.

The current paper business began in 1816 when a plant near Chennai was established. This venture failed miserably. In 1832, a new paper mill was built in Serampore, West Bengal, on the Hugli River. This initiative too failed, and the first successful attempt was in 1870, when the Royal Bengal Paper mills in Ballyganj, near Kolkata, were established.

Even now, this is the centre of the paper business. Successive attempts were undertaken in 1879 at Lucknow, 1882 at Titagarh, 1887 at Pune, 1892 at Raniganj, 1892 at Kaukinra, and 1918 at Naihati. Preferential treatment and tariff protection aided in the resolution of this industry's initial issues.

World War II gave this business a new lease on life. However, until Independence, progress was slow, and it was only during the plan period that the industry achieved significant progress. There were 17 mills in 1950-51, with a total installed capacity of 1.37 lakh tonnes.

In 1977-78, 77 mills and 14.40 lakh tonnes were produced, while in 1995-96, 379 mills and 37.78 lakh tonnes were produced. India's total installed capacity for paper and paperboard is currently 6.2 million tonnes. The total installed capacity for paper and paperboard is estimated to reach 8.3 million tonnes by 2010. Paper and paperboard output has gradually increased as well.

India's paper industry is listed among the top 15 in the world. It has an annual revenue of almost Rs 16,000 crore and employs nearly three lakh people directly and another ten lakh indirectly. India's per capita paper usage remains around 5.5 kilograms, well below the global average of roughly 50 kg.

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Growth and Distribution of Paper Making in India

Raw Materials:

Different sorts of raw materials can be used to make paper and paper boards. Raw materials account for 45-50 percent of overall production costs and are an integral part of the process of making paper and paperboard. Forest-based raw materials account for 43% of total installed capacity, agro-based raw materials for 28%, and other materials, including waste paper, for the remaining 29%.

Bamboo:

In general, 2.3 to 2.4 tonnes of bamboo are required to make one tonne of paper. Bamboo accounts for 60-70 percent of the entire cellulosic raw material requirements in the paper industry. Bamboo offers the advantages of long fibre, dense stands, and rapid regeneration.

It matures in 2-3 years and provides a constant supply of basic renewable materials. However, if the pace of exploitation exceeds the rate of regeneration, this essential raw material source may be depleted. At the current rate, the entire supply of bamboo is projected to be between 20 and 30 lakh tonnes per year.

Sabai Grass:

Another key raw material used in the production of paper is this. Before the arrival of bamboo as a key raw material, it was the only option, but its use has declined significantly since then. It now accounts for 7 to 9% of the country's total cellulosic raw material.

Although Sabai grass has a long fibre and requires little chemical input, it grows in tufts among other plants, making it difficult to extract pollutants from it. Furthermore, it has far fewer resources than bamboo. Sabai grass, together with other related grasses, has an annual supply of roughly one million tonnes. It primarily grows in the Shiwalik and Tarai sub-Himalayan tracts.

Bagasse:

It is a fibrous sugarcane stalk remnant derived mostly from sugar mills after sucrose is recovered by crushing the sugarcane. Bagasse is produced in the country in large quantities, with half of it going to the paper industry.

Other Materials:

Other materials beyond those listed above are also used to make paper. Waste paper, rags, rice, and wheat straw, jute sticks, and softwood from eucalyptus, pine, wattle, and mulberry trees are among them.

Chemicals:

In addition to the cellulosic raw materials indicated above, chemicals are employed in the production of pulp, paper, and paperboard. Caustic soda, soda ash, sodium sulfate, chlorine, sulphuric acid, sulfur, lime, ferric alumina, ammonium sulfate, resin, and clay are all essential compounds.

There are also a number of sizing and colouring compounds employed. Coal is also used as a raw material in the paper industry. To make one tonne of paper, around 3.5 to 4.1 tonnes of coal are required. A large amount of soft water is also required.

Localization of the Paper Industry

Paper and paperboard manufacture uses coarse, low-cost, weight-losing raw materials and looks for raw-material-oriented locations. Chemicals employed in this industry are only required in small quantities and can be easily transported across vast distances from the point of manufacture to the point of consumption.

As a result, paper mills in the Western Ghats, Eastern Ghats, central India, and the Tarai-Bhabar area in the foothills of the Himalayas have a strong tendency to be located near forest areas. In the Himalayan region, there are huge stands of temperate forests that can produce large quantities of softwoods.

For the paper industry, these softwoods can supply good cellulose material. However, due to the rough terrain and limited transportation options, these locations are inaccessible, making the extraction of these softwoods and their supply to paper mills in the surrounding areas unlikely.

Furthermore, while wood pulp forests take 50-60 years to regenerate, bamboo forests take only 2-3 years. There hasn't been a paper mill built in the Himalayan region yet. Because the availability of cellulosic raw materials is insufficient to meet the demands of the paper industry, efforts are being undertaken to plant additional eucalyptus and other fast-growing species of wood trees.

Distribution of Paper Industry

The leading state in producing paper in India is West Bengal however, the distribution landscape for the paper sector has changed during the previous few years. The table below shows the current state of the paper sector distribution in India.

Distribution of Paper Industry in India (1996)