CHENNAI/BANGALORE: The absence of notorious sandalwood smuggler Veerappan in the forests of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for three years has helped the sandalwood trade. For the first time in recent years, the public auction of the fragrant wood has fetched a record amount of Rs50 crore.
The forest brigand, who had for many years smuggled huge quantities of sandalwood from the Satyamangalam forests that straddle the southern states before he graduated to kidnap and murder, was killed by the Tamil Nadu police on October 18, 2004. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu account for 90 percent of India’s sandalwood.
In the auction held in Salem in Tamil Nadu on Thursday more than a dozen merchants from the south as well as Delhi and Mumbai took part. Though the auction is held every six months, this is the first time in seven years that such a price has been realised, according to officials.
One tonne of “high quality root” fetched as much as Rs41.60 lakh per tonne while “sandalwood dust” went for Rs 1.50 lakh per tonne. Of the 600 tonnes kept in the Tamil Nadu government’s godowns in Tirupattur, Salem and Satyamangalam, 164 tonnes were auctioned.
After Veerappan was killed, there are many “mini-Veerappans.” They don’t abduct or ambush and murder police and forest officials like the senior had done with bone-chilling regularity “They are content with just poaching,” says a senior officer.
Excepting in Kerala, trade in sandalwood is a monopoly of the government in the southern states.
The governments own the sandalwood trees even if they are grown on private lands. It is mandatory for private growers of sandalwood to get a license from the government to store, sell and process
the wood.
Rules stipulate that owners of the private lands must declare to the government the number of sandalwood trees they are growing. It’s an offence to possess more than 20 kg of sandalwood.
