Fibre dimension indicates the suitability
of a vegetable fibrous raw material for
making pulp. About 600 species of hardwoods,
about 20 species of bamboos and
a few species of grass are available in the
forests of Bangladesh. Of these, 40 woods, 13
bamboos, 6 grasses and 10 miscellaneous
fibrous materials are reported in this
review. None of these species can alone
feed any paper mill except Gewa wood
which is exclusively used for newsprint
pulp at Khulna Newsprint Mills. Karnaphuli
Paper and Rayon Mills are utilising
a few bamboo species along with other hardwoods. Grasses like Nal, Khagra &
Ekrah are partly used in Sylhet Pulp Mills.
Most of the wood, bamboo and grass
species are found scattared all over the
forests of Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts
and Sylhet. Due to inaccessibility into
forest and heavy cost of felling and transportation,
few of these species can be used
economically as pulping raw material.
However, this report will be useful to pulp,
paper and board industries in finding out
alternative species to the present source of
raw materials.