The Hindu Business Line : Industrial plantations by paper mills

PAPER Mills have been crying hoarse for industrial plantations on the plea of raw materials shortage. Big paper mills, have forest-leasing rights to cut timber for their pulping mills, with conditions set for replantation. But environmentalists argue that replantation will not set right the damage already done to the flora and fauna.

Another problem is that many of the raw materials used by paper mills, are highly polluting and treating them would cost as much as setting up a new unit.

While other agriculture-based raw materials are being used, the quality of paper is not the same as from forest-based raw materials. Traditionally, paper mills used bamboo as their primary raw material for pulping. Later, such trees as pine, eucalyptus and casuarina were used thanks to the rapid strides made in mechanical and chemical engineering.

But, in the late 1960s, especially in India, States rightfully refused to supply trees due to the dwindling forest cover and the high gestation period involved in replantation.

While felling causes heart burns for everybody, but environmentalists may well know certain facts about the trees required by paper mills. The Forest Products Association of Canada and the Canadian Pulp and Paper Industry have revealed certain interesting facts. According to them, two key variables in this equation are the tree type and age. Basically, the more a tree produces nutrients (sugars) to grow, the more oxygen it releases as a by-product. Depending on the species, this can vary considerably. Age is also an important factor. A healthy young tree which grows quickly produces significantly more oxygen than a mature tree whose growth rate has slowed. Beyond maturity — which varies according to species — trees enter a phase of decay and tend to release more carbon-dioxide and other elements into the atmosphere than oxygen.

A study by the National Centre for Atmospheric Research funded by the National Science Foundation of United States (reported in cnn news. Com on October 21, 2001) says that "volatile organic compounds emitted by autumn leaves combine with certain types of industrial emissions to create smog, and, in some cases, they play a role in global warming." Patrick Michaels, a professor for environmental engineering at the University of Virginia, says that "it should not be surprising" that autumn foliage from a tree as it decays or oxidises "behaves much like petroleum when you burn it." Prof Michaels says that trees produce VOCs (volatile organic compounds) when their leaves rot and fall and they produce even more VOCs when they burn. And, he says, unlike cars, "they do not have catalytic converters."

Research by Lancaster University shows that the English oak, one of the very symbols of nationhood, is among the worst offenders. Others include the poplar, the red and sessile oaks and the crack, goat and white willows. The university researchers say: "Most people assume that trees only benefit air quality. In fact, some tree species can have a negative effect and actually help to form pollutants in the atmosphere."

Research at the University of California at Berkeley, meanwhile, suggests that pollution from oak trees is destroying the pine forests of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They have found that the oaks are producing between 40 per cent and 70 per cent of the ozone that is damaging and killing Jeffrey and ponderosa pines — the dominant species in the forest.

The detective work that led to the incrimination of trees began after American cities found, to their surprise, that ozone levels failed to decline after anti-pollution measures were carried out.

Ozone is formed by the effect of sunlight on nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, both emitted from car exhausts. It became clear that some trees, such as oak and poplar, were producing huge amounts of a hydrocarbon called isoprene which dominated in the formation of ozone. Prof Russell Monson of the University of Colorado, who also made a special study of the issue, said:

"The problem is that forests around many southern US cities have so many oaks, and isoprene is many times more reactive with the atmosphere than manmade hydrocarbons."

Trees have been blamed for up to 65 per cent of ozone-forming chemicals in Houston. A 1998 study of the Ozark forests, along with other EPA studies, found that trees in heavily forested counties in the region may emit up to 300 tonnes of isoprene per day.

Trees are believed to emit the chemical as part of a sun protection system, said Mr Thomas Pierce, a meteorologist who tracks natural emissions for the EPA's Biogenic Emission Inventory System. About half of the isoprene eventually turns into formaldehyde. Isoprene, like other naturally emitted chemicals, poses a danger when wind carries it into the urban areas or near other pollution sources, Mr Pierce said.

The solution is not just cutting down trees because they do help in cooling the earth's atmosphere, but becoming aware of the ill-effects of mature trees. Therefore, if these trees that cause pollution are cut down especially to create wealth, such as paper and paper products, it need not be frowned upon. And if these trees are again grown and cut, like an agricultural activity, there need not be any heartburns.

India has a land area of approximately 32 lakh sq km, out of which 3.14 lakh sq km is water. The country has 2,37,000 sq km of wasteland, comprising barren land (62,200 sq km) uncultivable land (96,000 sq km) and fallow land (78,800 sq km). Converting this into hectares, India has 23.7 million hectares of wasteland out of the 328 million hectares of land.

The writer, having a wasteland plantation, could calculate an yield of only 5 mt tonnes, per year, per hectare, of eucalyptus or casuarinas or cashew trees per year on a totally unirrigated and uncultivable land. Even if the government makes available five million hectares of wasteland to the industry, the yield of 25 million tonnes of hardwood trees per year will produce 10 million tonnes of pulp, against the current requirement of six million tonnes of pulp for the entire paper production in the country valued about $3.25 billion at the rate of $325 a tonne, saving much in foreign exchange.

The Government may have some reservations about leasing out barren land to corporates just to protect the interests of certain poor farmers who have to have their livelihood in farming. In the modern era, the theory of poor farmers creating wealth for themselves and the country has been ruled out. They can be as, or more, gainfully employed through corporates which with their massive investments and technology can give a livelihood to the poor agriculturists.

Now taking into account the studies by American and European scientists about the carbon-dioxide generated by old trees and isoprene emitted by certain varieties of oaks, it would not be out of place to conclude that felling, especially the old trees, is not that harmful. It only confirms the opinion that industrial plantation can be a logical activity and treated just like agriculture, as before the tree ages it is cut for pulp and due to replantation on a barren land, forest coverage is increased which otherwise was not there. Therefore the industry's plea is justifiable.

(The author, a paper trader and paper products manufacturer, is a former faculty member of LIBA, Chennai.)

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