From MD’s Desk

Tripura Forest Development & Plantation Corporation Limited (TFDPC). The Corporation was established in the year 1976 under the Companies Act, 1956 by the Government of Tripura with equity participation from the Ministry of Environment & Forests Government of India. The authorized share capital of the Corporation is Rs.10.00 crores. The Corporation came into existence after the

Central Government in mid seventies proposed to instill professional business enterprise culture among the Forest Departments of the country. The primary aim of this policy (adopted on the recommendations of National Commission on Agriculture), was to increase the productivity from the forests in order to give a fillip to the production forestry in the country for meeting the growing needs of the people for the goods and services from the forests resources. The underlying principle was that in the midst of rising population, unless the production goals are achieved the larger aim of conservation of natural forests and wildlife would be difficult to achieve. The sustained efforts and hard work done by the officers, staff and workers of the TFDPC over the years have yielded results. The Corporation is running for the last five years in good profit.

Though forestry activities and more so rubber plantation are very much capital intensive, it is contributing immensely in creating a sound socio-economic infrastructure in the State. The Corporation activities have provided the much needed economic industrial base to this land locked State. The main objective of the corporation is rehabilitation of the degraded forestland through rubber plantations and rehabilitation of tribal shifting cultivators. The Corporation has made pioneering attempts to develop successful models for the permanent settlement of the tribal shifting cultivators honey combing the forests through rubber cultivation by providing each family one hectare of Rubber plantation. It has provided settlement to more than 2700 tribal families so far and is in the process to cover another 1000 families in the next five years period. The Corporation is one of the single largest rubber plantation units in the country. The TFDPC is creating employment opportunities to around 6500 people directly and to equal number of people indirectly thus becoming one of the most important social sector organization in the State.

Each tribal family is earning around 10 to 15 thousand or more rupees every month from sale of rubber from one ha of Rubber Plantation. The Corporation is promoting rubber-based industries in the State of Tripura and generating employment opportunities in rural areas to the tune of 10 lakhs man-days every year. The thrust of the Corporation activities is to enhance the area of rubber plantations on degraded forestland. We have so far raised more than 11,000 ha of rubber plantations in the State and we intend to plant another 3874 ha along the Indo-Bangla Border to create sufficient resource base for Rubber Industries in the State.

The Corporation has taken initiative to diversify its activities in promotion and value addition of rubber, rubber timber and bamboo. The Corporation is successfully running a Rubber Timber Processing Unit at its Industrial Estate. A sophisticated furniture manufacturing unit with all imported carpentry machineries has already started producing rubber wood furniture at affordable price. A solid Rubber wood Board production unit named “Tripura Rubber Wood Factory” will start full fledged production of solid Rubber Wood Board ( 8ft X 4ft) of 12mm to 38mm thickness, and Beam of 16ft length with width ranging between 4X3’ to 6X4 inches soon. We are also in the process of setting up a Door Manufacturing Factory. A Bamboo Furniture Unit will also be set up in the Industrial Estate soon. We also plan to completely switch over to production of TSR ISNR in the next five years. These activities shall create significant number of permanent jobs in the State.

(Jagdish Singh)
Managing Director