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Potent money spinner

Policy intervention and inter-institutional collaborative research are required to capitalise on economically potent Red Sanders wood that is currently being smuggled to China

Potent money spinner
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Nature has gifted India with unmatched flora, fauna and other biological resources. Like much-admired tigers and lions, the country is endowed with extremely valuable trees like agarwood, rosewood and Red Sanders. These three trees are of immense economic value. While agarwood and its oil are in great demand in Middle East countries, the capital of Tripura, Agartala, derives its name from the same, as the city was once full of agarwood forests. The price of agar oil is a whopping Rs 25 lakhs/kg and that of agarwood chips is Rs 1 lakh/kg in the United Arab Emirates and other neighbouring countries of the Middle East. The heartwood of Red Sanders trees, on the other hand, is aggressively sourced by Chinese traders, legally or through smuggling, no matter what the price is. Red Sanders, like agarwood, are a money spinner and, if managed properly with the government’s support, they can make a huge difference in agroforestry by stepping up the income of farmers multiple times.

Now the question is, why the Chinese love to buy the timber of this tree at exorbitant prices, and what institutional and administrative actions are needed on the part of India to promote it and harness its potential? Red Sanders, scientifically known as Pterocarpus santalinus, is an endemic species naturally occurring in around four lakh hectares of forests in Andhra Pradesh’s five districts — Chittoor, Kadapa, Kurnool, Nellore and Prakasam — and runs through Sesachalam, Veligonda, Lankamala and Palakonda in Eastern Ghats’ hill ranges. It is also growing naturally in adjoining Krishnagiri, North Arcot and Chengalpet districts of Tamil Nadu. A large number of farmers — estimated to be between 50,000 and one lakh — have started planting Red Sanders on their farmlands in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, considering its value in the domestic and international markets. In 1995, owing to overexploitation, it was listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITIES), as also in the red list of IUCN. Its trade is restricted and controlled under the provisions of CITIES.

Red Sanders heartwood has very high demand in international markets and is particularly exported to China. One kg of good-quality Red Sanders heartwood reportedly costs anything between Rs 1,000 and Rs 4,500. It is endemic to Eastern Ghats’ hill ranges due to its soil quality, water content, acidity, aeration and the availability of nutrients. There are two types of wood that are popular in trade — one is wavy or ripple-grained and the other is straight-grained. The wavy-grained wood has a huge demand in the international market and is primarily exported to Japan for manufacturing a special musical instrument called ‘Shamisen’ — a three-stringed lute used in classical music. The neck of this instrument is primarily made with Red Sanders. It is also used to make name seals, frames, carving, medicines and traditional dishes. Red Sanders is used in China for the high-value furniture that has been manufactured since the tenth century. Red Sanders wood contains an important insoluble or sparingly soluble red-wood dye. It contains 16 per cent of the pigment santalin (santalic acid) — a major colouring matter which was first isolated in a crude form in 1833. It is being used as a textile dye, and has five colouring components ranging from violet to orange but is popular for providing red colour. It is a matter of research if Red Sanders have any other gradient in them, as some traces of Strontium (3,000 ppm) and Uranium (2 to 5 ppm) are also found. The wood also accumulates Zinc, Copper, Cadmium and other trace elements.

This writer was, last year, appointed as Court Commissioner by the Madras High Court to make an assessment of Red Sanders trees growing on the 2-acre farmland of a farmer named Ganesan in Krishnagiri District of Tamil Nadu while deciding a 12-year-old case between the farmer and the National Highways Authority of India. While assessing the Red Sanders tree after holding extensive talks with the farmers; Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka forest departments’ senior officers; and the Red Sanders traders of Tirupati and Bangalore, it became evident that the tree was growing well with good, red-grain heartwood even on the farmlands of Andhra Pradesh and adjoining areas of Tamil Nadu. My recent experience with this species pushed me to write this piece for the attention of policymakers and administrators. The forest departments of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have been selling the seized Red Sanders through global tenders. In Tamil Nadu, the latest rates obtained for the Grade-C Red Sanders logs during the year 2018 were between Rs 46.53 lakh to Rs 48.35 lakh per metric ton, and for non-grade logs, it was between Rs 11.61 to Rs 22.8 lakh per metric ton. In 2014, in Tamil Nadu, the highest rate of Rs 76.45 lakh per metric ton for C-Grade was obtained. The rates for Andhra Pradesh were also by and large on similar lines. Andhra Pradesh has a big Red Sanders depot at Tirupati, and a good facility to provide guidance on Red Sanders to farmers.

The forest department so far assigns only non-grade Red Sanders heartwood from farmlands. The farmers sell off their Red Sanders timber to specific Red Sanders traders who hire middlemen to contact the farmers and, ultimately, the exporters export as per the quota fixed by the Government of India. The farmers get returns ranging from Rs 50,000 per metric ton to Rs 5-10 lakh per metric ton. A few educated farmers may even get up to Rs 15 lakh per metric ton. Money spinners like Red Sanders need a national policy focus as well as a very broad spectrum of inter-institutional collaborative research between CSIR, ICFRE and the Department of Nuclear Research. It is a matter of curiosity to find out what may be the ultimate use of this heartwood in China! The ICFRE and its institutes at Hyderabad and Bangalore should immediately conduct research on grading quality, preparation of volume and yield table as also on its chemical properties, especially focussing on farmers' land for a rotation period of 30-35 years. It also has some medicinal uses which need to be explored. At the state level, forest departments should take over the supply of better planting material and take over the marketing of the Red Sanders wood from farmers’ land so that better grading, as well as better prices, can be ensured through global tender for the farmers. After deducting the administrative overheads and a fixed cess, the sale proceeds should be transferred to farmers’ accounts. For this, a public-private partnership scheme should be devised. For increasing the income from farmers’ land, we need to be innovative in our actions and thinking. I have been rooting for overhauling forest administration into more independent wings and suggested in the past that when we can have a rubber and coffee board, we can also have Red Sanders and agarwood boards at the government level.

The writer is Chairman of Centre for Resource Management and Environment. Views expressed are personal

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