WHEN YOU APPROACH the HC Bhadra-chalam pulp and paper complex in rural Andhra Pradesh, India (a five-hour train ride east from Hyderabad and then a 50-minute drive through small villages and countryside), you not only arrive at the largest pulp and paper facility in India, but a modern wonder for the region. ITC Bhadrachalam is the only pulp mill in India with a "light" ECF line, including ozone bleaching, and seven advanced paper machines for board as well as printing and writing grades, adding up to 485,000 tonnes/yr. Also important is the new landscape of engineered eucalyptus and subabul hardwood plantation forests, covering more than 140,000 ha surrounding the mill. Thousands of tiny plantations, run by low-income local farmers and indigenous people, combine with the mill to reshape this region.
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