We continued to rapidly upscale our farm and social forestry initiatives adding another nearly 24,000 hectares of plantations in 2006-07.

Total farm and social forestry plantations, as on March 31, 2007 covered an area of nearly 65,000 hectares.

This initiative has not only led to sustainable sources of raw materials for our Paperboards business and provided millions of mandays of employment to poor tribals and marginal farmers, but also has helped sequester 2025 kilotons of CO2, thereby consolidating ITC’s ‘Carbon Positive’ status for the second consecutive year.

Total CO2 emitted by our Units in 2006-07 amounted to 1143 kilotons (reduction of 4.9% from 05-06).

We have implemented a computerised data management system for data collection and estimation of CO2 emissions, using IPCC 2006 emission factors, during the year to further improve reliability of the presented data.

In keeping with our strategies, various businesses have implemented a large number of CDM projects, including social & farm forestry plantations, in various locations.

The CDM Executive Board has already registered seven of these projects and several other CDM projects are in different stages of progress.