Unable to sell genuinely raised Redsanders trees, cultivators grope in the dark
The Hindu
Redsanders cultivators in private lands in Telangana are in a fix as the State Government, more particularly the Forest Department has failed to show them way out to sell their ‘genuinely raised’ trees.
Redsanders cultivators in private lands in Telangana are in a fix as the State Government, more particularly the Forest Department has failed to show them way out to sell their ‘genuinely raised’ trees.
Running from pillar to post to get the permission to fell the trees for future sale, the cultivators have only hit a road block every time they try and reach out to the administration.
At a meeting of the Redsanders cultivators with the Forest and Environment Minister Allola Indrakaran Reddy and senior Forest Department officials in Hyderabad on Tuesday, the cultivators, who have come together to form “Telangana Kalapa Sagudarula Sangham” (Telangana Wood Growers Association) expressed disappointment at the lackadaisical response from the officialdom.
In a petition to the Minister, the cultivators urged the Government to bring in a new policy to smallholder cultivators to dispose their cultivated Redsanders through Forest Department aggregation and global auction.
The cultivators pointed out that Redsanders was only grown in private lands and their plea was chiefly to maintain a State-level registry of Redsanders to estimate annual supplies to obtain export quota for Telangana State from the Central governmental authorities and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
Association representatives urged the authorities to aggregate and warehouse “cultivators-Redsanders” for global auction in the manner it was done with “confiscated-Redsanders” by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Odisha States. They wanted the officials to conduct quality study of Redsanders cultivated in the State and advise best practices to cultivators.
The cultivators are dismayed at the answer given by senior forest officials, who maintained that Redsanders is endemic to Chittoor surroundings only and it will not grow well in Telangana and even if it grows it will not produce quality heartwood to attract market.