Every winter, stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana contributes to Delhi’s air pollution, with crop residue burning accounting for as much as 26% of the capital’s pollution, according to the article. Seeking an economically viable alternative, IIT graduates Arpit Dhupar and Anand Bodh founded deep-tech material startup Dharaksha in 2019.
The company developed a proprietary biotechnology process that converts paddy straw stubble into biodegradable packaging material. The packaging is designed to biodegrade within 60 days under normal soil conditions, offering a potential alternative to conventional materials such as thermocol.
The founders’ approach aims to give farmers a productive use for leftover crop residue while addressing an environmental problem that affects communities across the Indo-Gangetic belt. Dharaksha’s work demonstrates how agricultural waste can be transformed into a useful material rather than being treated solely as something to be discarded or burned.
From Pollution Problem To Business Idea
For Dharaksha co-founder Arpit Dhupar, the idea was rooted in a personal observation about how air pollution is changing the environment people grow up in. A drawing made by his nephew showed a grey sky instead of the blue sky commonly seen in childhood drawings.
The image stayed with Dhupar and made him think about the kind of environment future generations might inherit. “We shouldn’t live in a world where we have to explain to kids that the sky should be painted blue. It should be a given,” he said in an interview, as reported in the article. During a sabbatical from work, Dhupar travelled through villages in Punjab and Haryana to understand the problem of stubble burning and speak with farmers. He found that farmers wanted to get rid of leftover crop residue because it had little practical use for them. Its high moisture content also made it unsuitable for use as fuel.
Dhupar began exploring the possibility of collecting and compressing the stubble using baler machines before working with Anand Bodh to develop Dharaksha. Their eventual solution involved using mushrooms to break down the stubble and create a material with the structural properties required for protective packaging.
How Dharaksha Makes The Material
The company’s process uses mushroom mycelium, the network of fungal threads that develops as mushrooms grow. Once the collected stubble reaches Dharaksha’s facility, it is sterilised before mushroom culture is introduced. The mycelium then grows through the material, creating an interlocked structure that holds the stubble together and gives the packaging strength without requiring resin. The material is subsequently placed in an oven, where the mushrooms are neutralised.
According to Dhupar, this process helped the founders realise that the stubble was not simply waste but could become a usable material through bio-fabrication. The resulting packaging is described as flameproof and capable of enduring high-moisture conditions. The company says its material can biodegrade within 60 days in normal soil conditions. Anand Bodh said Dharaksha has developed internal software and processes to track individual units throughout their life cycle.
At the time of the article, the company was manufacturing around 20,000 pieces a month and planning to scale production fivefold in the following months. The startup had also counted companies including Dabur, V-Guard, Pernod Ricard, Nestlé, Fyllo and Gourmet Jars among its customers. The article states that each piece of material produced helps prevent 250 tonnes of thermocol from reaching landfills, although the basis and calculation behind this figure are not further detailed in the supplied source.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
Dharaksha’s story highlights an important shift in how environmental challenges can be approached. Stubble burning is often discussed primarily as a pollution problem, but the issue is also connected to what farmers can realistically do with large quantities of crop residue after harvest.
A solution becomes more meaningful when it considers both environmental concerns and the practical realities faced by communities. By developing a way to convert paddy straw into packaging, Dharaksha is attempting to create value from material that has traditionally been treated as waste. Its approach also points towards a wider conversation about sustainable consumption: replacing harmful materials is not enough unless alternatives can be produced at scale, remain practical for businesses and provide genuine value to consumers and producers.
The founders’ journey, from witnessing the consequences of air pollution to developing a material-based solution, shows how innovation can emerge from paying attention to everyday environmental problems. At the same time, continued research, transparent impact measurement and responsible scaling will be important to determine how widely such alternatives can contribute to reducing waste and pollution.
Can agricultural waste become a valuable resource while creating cleaner and more sustainable choices for everyone?
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