HISTORY

India is rich in its forest wealth having a huge land area under forests. All varieties of
forest growth are found in India ranging from tropical hard wood forests to high altitude
coniferous forests and from deciduous to evergreen forests and plantation but unfortunately the
forest resources in India is depleting due to increase of population and other causes. Instead of
depending entirely on natural regeneration of forest resources, the Government of India, NG0
and some of our members have taken positive steps for tree plantation on large areas inthe
various states with fast growing species so that they can conserve the natural forest and meet the
demand for wood and wood products of various domestic and international consumers.
The history of ply wood industry in India is old. It is more than 75 years that this
industry was started here on a very modest scale. It was in the year 1906-07 that plywood was
imported in India for the first time valued at Rs.32 lakhs.

Imports rose steadily and by 1924-25 it were worth Rs.90 lakhs. Tea industry in Assam, West
Bengal and Kerala was steadily developing and it was thought that ply wood industry in the form
of Tea chests production manly for export should be developed. Accordingly two ply wood
factories were started in Assam in 1923-24 but their development was steady and slow and not
phenomenal.
With the out break of second world war, necessity of manufacturing tea chests locally
was very much felt and ply wood Industry in form of Tea Chests industry started on a large
scale. It is not exaggerated that ply wood industry in India is a gift of second world war. Now
that tea chests must be produced, forest Departments in

different states started thinking in terms of finding suitable timber for manufacturing tea chests.
Experiments were made at forest Research institute, Dehra Dun
and it was found that ply wood made from Indian timbers were as good as imported products
and therefore advised forest entrepreneurs to set up modern factories in different states.
Accordingly well-equipped factories were started in different places vizSitapur, Bangalore,
Baliapatam, Dandeli and Coochbihar. Some of these factories suffered setbacks in the post war
years, as after cessation of war the vested interests tried to sebotage this industry by trying to
restart imports of tea chest.
 After 1947-48 the industry resorted to diversification of its products and block boards,
flush doors, commercial ply wood, decorative ply wood, marine and aircraft ply woods,
produced in Indian factories came into the market which were second to none in the world in
quality and diversity of its products. Industrial Licensing is governed by the Industries
(Developmental and Regulation) Act, 1951 under which the wood based industry was covered.
There was no restriction of putting up plywood mill up to 1970. The only criteria was
that the applicant was required to obtain an Industrial License which was being considered by
Ministry of industry after consulting various Ministries including Ministry of Environment and
Forests. Forest Ministry was being consulted for ascertaining sustainable raw material of
timber for a particular project; the wood based industry was more or less in medium and large
scale.
During 1970 there was clear cut definition of small scale sector and units having an
investment of less than 7.5 lakhs in plant and equipment were covered under the definition of
small scale sector, which would be registered with the respective state director of Industries. At
that particular stage some of the units with such investment got themselves transferred to small
scale sectors.
Meanwhile, there were modern technology and machinery equipped ply wood units
coming up in different places in India like North Eastern Zone. In 1997 the Government of
India totallydelicensed wood based industry and as a result of it more than 2000 small scale
units came up.
To assess the overall status of ply wood industry in the country the production of
plywood in India given here below for 50 years from 1951 to 2001 on 10 year basis.