New Delhi With the rising demand for paper and paper products during the last decade, the industry has urged the government to explore possibility of using a part of the huge track of wasteland for growing trees, which would meet future wood pulp requirements. An assessment of the raw material requirement of the R25,000-crore paper industry is anticipated to rise to 6.1 million tonne per annum by 2025 from the present 2 million tonne. “We need to plan for production of 24.4 million tonne of freshly cut pulpwood per annum for meeting the demand of pulp and paper industry by 2025 which at present needs only 10 million tonne of raw material per annum,” the paper said. The industry has urged the government to allow paper manufacturers to grow tree varieties such as Eucalyptus, Casurina and Subabul in wastelands estimated to be more than 28 million hectare which would be supplied to paper units. This would also increase green cover in the country. “Large-scale promotion of agro-forestry plantations integrated with wood-based industries would address the constraints hampering the growth of agro-forestry plantations,” the paper noted.. Due to a variety of reasons including unbearable biotic pressures and forest fires, 28.84 million hectare (mh) out of the 69.09 mh of forest cover in the country has suffered severe degradation. While urging the government to promote agro-forestry plantations integrated with wood-based industries, the paper has asked for the restoration of 28.84 mh of degraded forestland for optimum sustainable productivity. Indian Paper Manufacturers Association has said that as a result of the industry-led social forestry initiative, more than 4 lakh hectare of barren land had been brought under pulpwood plantations for supplying raw material to units. One of the biggest paper manufacturers ITC has promoted social forestry in more than 1.2 lakh hectare. “We have taken only barren land from farmers for social forestry purpose, where the wood pulp produced is purchased by us at market prices”, Sanjay K Singh, divisional chief executive, paper boards & speciality paper division, ITC, told FE. He said farmers are willing to take up plantations in their unutilised land as there is a market ready for pulp. From 7.5 kg per capita consumption during 2007-08, the domestic consumption of paper has gone up to 9.3 kg during the current fiscal. While global average per capita consumption of paper is around 45 kg against the consumption of 312 kg in the US. Even China has per capita paper consumption of 42 kg while countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia have an estimated consumption of 22 kg and 25 kg, respectively.