No end to woes of private red sanders growers in Telangana

They are running from pillar to post to sell their genuinely grown trees, not because of lack of market, but enabling-policy

The very word Red Sanders ( yerra chandanam in Telugu), made more popular by the recent Allu Arjun blockbuster, Pushpa, traces the dubious manner in which smuggling of this precious tree species is carried out by mafia raj.

But away from the gaze of Seshachalam forests in Andhra Pradesh, many farmers in the Telugu States, who have planted Red Sanders without any common registry or association, are running from pillar to post to sell their genuinely grown trees, not because of lack of market, but enabling-policy.

Matured two-decade plus old Red Sanders (RS) trees grown in private agriculture orchards in some parts of north Telangana are languishing for want of the necessary permits, and the farmers, who have grown these trees, are literally staring at a bleak future.

Red Sanders or Pterocarpus Santalinus, as its botanically known, is literally gold: a tree can sell for ₹30 lakh to over ₹1.5 crore, depending on its grade quantity.

The Red Sanders is an Indian endemic tree unique to a distinct tract of marginal laterite soils in the Eastern Ghats. The tree matures in about 25 to 40 years. Traditionally, its use in India is limited to herbal medicines, agri-implements and figurines of deities.

Internationally, Red Sanders has a high demand, particularly in China and Japan, for making vintage furniture and musical instruments; and in Europe and the US for its rich natural dye to colour food and premium alcohols.

It is illegal to cut, store, transport and sell Red Sanders in any form. High demand for Red Sanders in the international market is the main cause for unabated smuggling in AP and its border States, because it is not local market, the disgusted farmers succumb to the mafia offers. That too when it gets confiscated, seen as produce from forest, because no farmer dares to claim ownership.