The following are the major industries which depend heavily on forest and agroforestry plantation to meet the raw material requirement.

1. Pulp and Paper Industries: The pulp and paper industry is one of the key industries in India and it is highly fragmented. Today, there are about 700 paper mills in India with 33 in the large scale sector. During 1990s, the per capita consumption of paper was 3.3 kg which has now escalated to 8 kg, but still lower compared to the global average of 47.7 kg. The current production of raw material for pulp and paper production is 2.76 million tons as against the demand of 5.04 million tons. The shortfall is as high as 45 per cent.

2. Match Industries: Match wood industry is one of the oldest wood based industries in India. About 75 per cent of the total match wood industries in the country are located in the state of Tamil Nadu which comprises nearly 6,000 match industries with mechanized, semi mechanized and as cottage industry. The per capita consumption of matches in India increased steadily from 2.45 kg (1970) to 4.25 kg (1987).

3. Timber and Sawn Wood Industries: Traditionally people in the country predominantly use timber and other converted wood in all their domestic and industrial wood requirement. The rapid population growth, urbanization and industrialization resulted in greater usage of wood in furniture, housing and construction material. During 2010-2012 more than 500 million square feet of space was estimated to be built in urban areas of the country and the wood products were valued around US Dollar 3 billion. With greater usage wood as a predominant material for housing and construction material in urban and semi urban areas there is going to be a great demand for timber and other sawn wood requirement. The Indian furniture market is estimated at 8 billion US Dollar and in most cases raw materials are imported from various countries.

Major Timber Species: 

i. Tectonagrandis 

ii. Terminaliaspp 

iii. Albizia spp. 

iv. Gmelinaarborea 

v. Azadirachtaindica

vi. Pterocarpus spp. 

vii. Mangiferaindica

4. Plywood Industries: One of the fastest growing in India is the plywood industry. The industrialization and urbanization and the increased interest on interior decorations have made great usage of plywood in the country. Wide range of species have been found amenable for making face, core and inner veneers resulted in establishment of more than 2,000 small scale industries involved in plywood manufacture. The liberalization and privatization policy of government of India also significantly contributed towards establishment of new rural industries. These industries also depend heavily on various species which thereby attracted large scale promotion of plywood based industrial wood plantations.

Major Plywood Species: 

i. Populus spp. 

ii. Meliadubia 

iii. Paulownia spp.

5. Particle Board Industries: Particle board is reconstituted constructional panel particularly developed as a substitute for natural constructional wood and is made from low grade waste woods or from ligneous agricultural residues. These particle boards are predominantly used for wall paneling and interior decorations in domestic and industrial wood sector. In India, the first particle board industry was set up in late 1950s at Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh and from then onwards large number of industries has been installed across the country.

Major Raw Materials: 

i. All types of wood waste 

ii. All types of pine needles 

iii. All types of Casuarina needles 

iv. Ligneous agriculture residues

6. Fibre Board Industries: Fibre board is constituted using sheet materials of widely varying diversities manufactured from refined or partially refined wood fibers or other vegetable fibers.

7. Dendro Biomass Power Generation Industries: Biomass is an important fuel source in overall energy scenario. Biomass is produced through chemical storage of solar energy in plants and other organic matter as a result of photosynthesis. This biomass include plantation that produces energy crops, natural vegetable growth and other organic waste and residues. Among all these biomass, the role of dendro biomass is very significant due to their higher calorific value and increased fuel efficiency. Hence, large number of dendro biomass based power plants has been established across the country to generate electricity.

8. Value Addition Industries: The wood based industries have to store the harvested raw materials during rainy season in order to have sustainable raw material availability and to sustain the industrial process during lean season. The post-harvest management of huge volume of industrial wood necessitates proper handling, storage and utilization which demand a scientific intervention in order to reduce post-harvest losses due to biological agents particularly powder post beetles and pin hole borers.

These biological agents are taking a heavy toll on stored industrial raw materials which need to be addressed. Hence large number wood seasoning and preservative industries have been established to avoid post-harvest losses. Similarly, the plantation and industrial processing activities accounts for 20-30 per cent of wood residues which are either unutilized or underutilized for want of suitable recycling technologies.

These plantation and industrial wood residues have been successfully value added into briquettes and as on today many industries have been established across the country and successful value addition using plantation residues have been evidenced. These value added briquettes acted as excellent feed stock for biomass power generation industry, boiler industries and other industries requiring biomass for meeting the energy demands.