Entrepreneurship is a journey filled with spontaneity as well as slow, deliberate decisions. A small event can lead one to bigger discoveries, laying the path for a new journey. Rupankar Bhattacharjee was a student of commerce, who took an ardent interest in herpetology, that eventually guided him to a breakthrough raw material for paper, and he established Kumbhikagaz with co- founder Aniket Dhar in 2022. Together, they manufacture paper made of water hyacinth, an invasive species in the wetlands, destroying the ecosystems there. An idea slithers into the mind.
Rupankar’s tale dates back to 2018. He shares, “I am a snake person. One day I rescued a Burmese Python from Azara region of Guwahati. On my arrival at Deepor Beel for releasing the snake, I saw green plants floating on the water surface. I could not recognise the species, so I called my guru, Dr. Jayaditya Purakayastha, a renowned scientist in the field of herpetology, and described the sight.”
Rupankar was informed that the plants were water hyacinth, and he remarks that he learned about it in 10th grade and so did every other kid, but they were never told of the damage they can do to a water body. As he saw the snake unable to manoeuvre swiftly across the water due to the floating mass, the beauty of the water hyacinth’s ornamental flowers seemed trivial considering the damage they were inflicting on the only Ramsar site of Assam, Deepor Beel.
Reminiscing about that incident, Rupankar continues, “Dr Jayaditya told me that meteka (Assamese for water hyacinth) is a fibre rich plant, and asked, why don’t you do something with it? So, I thought, why not convert this fibre into pulp and then into paper?”
The thought stayed in his head for long enough, and then Covid hit. The endless amount of free time gave the budding innovator time to bring the idea to life, whose prototype he refers to as “sort of a DIY project”. When he started out, the lack of a wide space made him use his own juicer-mixer-grinder to turn water hyacinth into pulp. “The mixer was thrown away the very next day. I had collected the materials from Bharalu River, which, owing to its filth, made the mixer unfit for kitchen use again,” he says. Apart from space, the biggest challenge was the weather in Assam, as it does not favour fast natural drying of the paper sheets.
DREAMING FOR THE REGION
“Whenever we talk of handmade paper units, the conversation is redirected towards Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, where paper is made from recycled cotton. However, our idea was to use a raw material that is otherwise harming the environment, is new to the market of printable handmade paper, and requires no chemicals,” says Rupankar.
Despite the humid climate of the area, the founders wish to keep working towards efficient handmade paper manufacturing units in the state, creating employment opportunities while limiting the growth of water hyacinth in the wetlands. The duo plan to shift the workspace to a larger area, where solar dryers can be set up for drying. Initially, collecting the water hyacinth also posed a challenge, but now a bigger team has been employed for the purpose, also creating awareness about the unconventional uses of the plant.
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