The Hindu Business Line : AP: ITC rebuilds wastelands, and lives too

SUNEHRA Kal (beautiful tomorrow), a social forestry programme launched by ITC some years ago in Andhra Pradesh, is poised to complete the full project cycle on a high note.

The programme was part of the `Triple Bottomline' concept adopted by the company, which covers economic, social and ecological goals of corporates.

Some 6,405 households in 224 villages of 14 mandals have been covered during the last four years, and some 5,260 hectares have been planted with eucalyptus, subabul, casuarina and others.

Launched in and around the villages of the company's integrated paper mill site at Bhadrachalam in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh, the programme involves afforestation, soil and water conservation, and watershed management, targeted at economically backward communities living below the poverty line.

Speaking to Business Line recently, Mr A.V.Rao, GM (Bhadrachalam-Operations), Paperboards & Specialty Papers Division (PSPD), said that in the current year, some 156 beneficiaries have already harvested 179 acres of plantations from 13 villages of three mandals, and have supplied 2,532 MT of wood worth Rs 36.76 lakh.

The project envisages afforestation, community development, health and sanitation, and education, and was being implemented through three NGOs, which identify the beneficiaries, organise them into forest user groups (`sanghas') and create a village development fund.

The sales proceeds handed over to the sanghas are rotated for further development and sustaining the rural activity.

He said the wasteland owners have now become productive farmers, and have already repaid to the sanghas Rs 14.16 lakh from the amount earned through plantations.

According to Mr Rao, the area to be covered by 2005-06, over 14 mandals, is 5,000 hectares, and the types of plants offered for afforestation every year are cashew, eucalyptus, `ITC Bhadrachalam' clones, subabul, bamboo, teak, and horticulture plants in the backyards of households.

Mr Pradid Dhobale, CEO of ITC-PSPD, said: "We work with select NGOs, identify poor tribals with wastelands, and organise them into self-supporting forest user groups."

The user group leaders are trained by the company to follow best silvicultural practices to grow high quality timber as a viable cash crop, and other local species that match domestic fodder, fuel and nutrition requirements.

Mr Dhobale said that after the first harvest, the farmer returns the loan to his forest user group and in the process creates a village development fund large enough to sponsor aspiring timber growers or meet other village development needs.

Asked what was at the heart of ITC's greening project at Bhadrachalam, Dr H.P. Kulkarni, Deputy General Manager (Plantations), said that it was the company's modern research centre, consistently striving for productivity, improvement of several tree species for providing attractive land-use alternatives to both traditional farmers and wasteland owners.

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