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ANIRBAN CHOUDHURY

Alipurduar, Aug. 20: It all began when the Japanese elephant expert handed over his calling card to the Indian forest official.

The card, said the expert, Yukio Kawaguchi, was made of paper manufactured from elephant dung. The kind of diet followed by the pachyderms, he added, ensured a lot of fibres in their excreta and a Thai company used it to manufacture hand-made paper.

The conversation took place at Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary in February this year, when Kawaguchi along with the director of a zoo in Japan had come to India in search of a couple of elephants to take back to their country.

The idea caught the fancy of P.T. Bhutia, the conservator of forests (wildlife), North Bengal. His department had long been grappling with the problem of disposing the heaps of dung accumulating in the sanctuary’s pilkhana (elephant stable), which sometimes lead to the animals developing infection in their legs.

Earlier attempts to manufacture manure out of the excreta had been unsuccessful, but Kawaguchi’s words provided Bhutia with a new plan.

“I immediately contacted Nsangbu Tshering and Sonam Bhutia, the owner and the technical expert of a Kalimpong-based hand-made paper manufacturing company,” said Bhutia. “They were very enthusiastic and wanted us to send the raw material.”

Tshering and Bhutia had the right credentials for the job, as their company, Gang Jong Paper Industry, had received an award from Geneva last year for its excellent quality of hand-made paper. In 2004, it was awarded the best manufacturer of such paper in the country by Confederation of Indian Industry.

The first part of the task, however, fell on the forest staff, as they sorted through the elephant dung for fibres. Classified according to the size of the particles, the medium-sized fibre proved to be the most suited to making paper and around 1.5 quintal of it was sent to Kalimpong. Tshering and Sonam then got down to work.

“They have already made paper out of it, which they showed us a few days ago in Jaldapara,” said Bhutia.

The conservator of forests has decided to involve forest villagers in the selling of the commodities made of the paper.

“Initially, we have thought of manufacturing files, pocket notebooks, greeting cards for visitors, carry bags and diaries. The members of eco-development committees will handle the commercial side and it will give them an alternative source of income. The huge number of visitors who come to Jaldapara each year will be the main target as consumers, but the products can be sold in local markets as well,” said Bhutia.

He added that there was a huge demand for such paper in the international market and the villagers can in future look to exploit that as well.