RED SANDERS

Bloodsanders- High returns and no investment

K.Chandramouli, IAS (Rtd.)

former Collector Kadapa and

presently  Director General, Centre for Development Studies, Hyderabad.

As children we have grown in Chittoor town in the heart of which there is a beautiful forest tucked away on to the east of what used to be a huge tank during 1960s. The forest, thanks to the efforts of many successive Collectors and forest officers, is still full of red sanders ( Pterocarpus santalinus ). When I say full, it actually is with about 60 plus percent of only red sanders, 20 percent tamarind and the rest with other species, shrubs and scrubs.

Many of us grew up visiting the forest, playing under red sanders and particularly during Vanabhojanam festivity, dined under them and remembered those wonderful moments for the next 50 years.

Red sanders to us was like any other tree, puzzled many times why it was  called both in Tamil and  Telugu “Raktha chandanam” (Wikipedia also names it  the same). For all the people who knew of this tree, it only meant a wood from which small hand pound sticks were made for grinding and pounding grains, millets, spices, etc. At times a quack practicing Ayurveda or Unani would have said its sap or wood was used in preparation of certain medicines. And there was one village, Settigunta in

Never  we thought Raktha chandanam,  which when translated, literally means   blood sandal wood may actually be licking the blood and snuffing away the lives of committed and disciplined forest department officials in the years to come. Raktha chandanam has started commanding incredible, skyrocketed prices driving many unscrupulous timber mechants, antisocial elements and  criminals into the business of indiscriminate and unkind hacking and smuggling of it. The incident that occurred on 16^th December, 2013 in Sheshachalam forest near Tirumala hills, resulting in the death of two forest officers is not only inhuman but speaks volumes about the way red sanders had found its route from the humble triangle of Chittoor, Nellore, Kadapa forests to the most glitzy streets of Japan and China. Smugglers and the  labour engaged to hack them down, mostly from Tamilnadu,  have found the easy and large money involved in smuggling red sanders and for a long time limited their activities only to destroying forests. But now, the kind of money involved in smuggling red sanders has made all of them mad and blood licking demons, completely unmindful of the consequences.

I remember the days as Collector, Kadapa district I would be visiting the interior villages in the forests of Rayachoti, Rajampet, Chitvel, Budwel, etc., when the villagers would compel me to have a tumbler of coffee and I would also oblige. They would start making fire right in the open, a few feet away from us with wood deep reddish brown in colour. Many times I had asked them looking at the firewood used for boiling milk and making coffee as to what wood it was and got an answer that it was Raktha chandanam.   

Looking at the inexplicable exorbitant price the wood commands at present I now  feel elated that I was sipping coffee made with red sanders as fuel wood.

But the fact that the smugglers have grown in to such an organized mafia that can go to the extent of killing officers in the uniformed services while discharging their legitimate duties is not only scary but also explains how a much worse situation is in the offing. Not too far in the past we had witnesswd how one destroyer of forests, Veerappan had thrown up huge and incomprehensible  challenges killing animals and humans alike and at times resorted to kidnapping important people for ransoms.   As compared to that what is happening in Seshachalam range of forests is more dangerous and ecologically a permanent loss.  As against Sandalwood involved in Mysore forests, it is red sanders here which is not available anywhere else in the world and as against one smuggler in the former, it’s gangs of large numbers in the latter. And what’s worse is the wood cutters are from Tamilnadu, especially Tiruvannamalai,  Salem,  Dharmapuri and Vellore districts and are notorious for their ferocious attacks on Police and Forest officials.  They visit the forests in large groups of 75 to 125 and just not worried about  the punishments in the event of getting caught in the act.

Thus, redsanders which was never a timber of great value had over years became literally blood sanders with no scent to either policy makers, forest officials or scientists as to what is the ultimate use it is put to in the countries smuggling the wood through all kinds of clandestine means.

The whole country woke up to the ghastly incident of two forest officials getting killed by the smugglers in Sheshachalam forest on 16^th December 2013. It is not just what it appears to be. There must be huge and powerful mafia behind the whole smuggling operation due to the easy and quick buck involved in it. Infact, a former CM of Andhra Pradesh had gone to the extent of blaming some of the people in public life holding positions.

If that is the magnitude of the problem, which I wish must not be true, the entire administration today should gear itself up to prevent this atrocities from recurring.

In order to make that happen, there are a few steps Governments, both at the Centre and in the State of Andhra Pradesh should immediately take up so that,   such barbarous acts can be prevented. They are as follows :

i.             As majority of the wood cutters brought as labour are from the district of Tamilnadu, a high level committee consisting of the forest, police, revenue and even elected public representatives should consider meeting frequently and establish surveillance jointly ;

ii.           Police and forest officials should start functioning in tandem sinking all their egos and differences and consider protecting red sanders as a joint responsibility / challenge;

iii.          Unless people and elected representatives of Panchayat Raj system, more importantly Sarpanches and ward members, are involved to protect these forest, mere Government officers’ efforts would only be proved futile.,

iv.          The youth in the villages located in and around these forests are oriented and empowered as in the case of Bharath Nirman Volunteers (an initiative of Rural Development Ministry, GoI) can prove very effective in preventing smuggling. A case study in this regard, of a village called Kotala in Chandragiri mandal of Chittoor district is worth mentioning. The Bharath Nirman Volunteers in that village have actually caught a group of violet red sander smugglers, seized the timber and handed them over to police apart from being vigilant ever since. Another incident after that has never recurred during the last two years.

v.            Government of Andhra Pradesh should provide fire arms to the forest officials and should also empower them to issue firing orders in the event of a serious threat of retaliation by the smugglers.

vi.          The Governments, both AP and Tamilnadu should start probing in to the  nefarious connections smugglers have with the bigwigs and uprooot all such networks to be permanently eliminated by adopting such means to any extent.

vii.         The district administration in Chittoor, Nellore, Kadapa and Ananthapuramu should carry out awareness camps to the general public in order to inculcate a sense of pride in them that red sanders is rare and available only in these parts and therefore, it’s a great matter of joy, pleasure and responsibility of them to prevent any damage to these pristine and glorious forests.