The State government’s decision to auction off 5,376.043 tonnes of precious red sanders is aimed at filling up the funds-starved coffers, as it is expected to generate a whopping revenue of ₹2,000 to ₹3,000 crore.
Consequentially, the huge mounds of logs seized from smuggling operatives and stored in the various godowns of the forest department are also set to come down.
Andhra Pradesh Forest Development Corporation (APFDC), a State government enterprise which is the designated nodal agency to carry out the e-tender-cum-e-auction, has roped in MSTC Ltd. for taking the global tender process forward. The government is keen on liquidating the stock in this ongoing process, as the Minister for Environment and Forest Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy, who hails from this region, is bent on cracking the whip on the smugglers.
The recent edition of the sale was carried out in two cycles, where the product was graded in lots of A, B and C, signifying the quality of the wood, from higher to lower in that order. The ‘A’ grade was made available in six lots, ‘B’ grade in 11 lots and the ‘C’ grade in 6 lots. The government could dispose of 17 of the 23 lots in one go.
Red sanders (pterocarpus santalinus) or ‘Yerra Chandanam’ in Telugu, is an endemic redwood grown only in the Seshachalam hill ranges, spread from Chittoor to parts of Prakasam and Kurnool districts. However, the best quality wood, identified by the inimitable grains, is available in Chittoor and and Kadapa districts, considered the core of Seshachalam biosphere reserve, which is also a closely-guarded national park.
The auction option was first explored during the UPA-II regime, in a bid to cash in on the demand for the wood across the globe. As the wood continued to cross the sea to reach China through other South-east Asian nations, the government apparently thought of officialising the sale to meet the demand and make money as well.
In fact, the government had also insisted upon publishing the tender notification for the auction of 417.650 metric tonnes in national and international dailies, especially in Chinese vernacular media, to target potential buyers.
“We hope that the demand will remain the same in the forthcoming phases of auction for red sanders, considered a luxury product, in view of the signs of slump showing up across the world”, said Chief Conservator of Forest (Tirupati Wildlife Management Division) N. Nageswara Rao.
In popular culture
The recent runaway hit film Pushpa–The Rise, starring Allu Arjun in the lead, catapulted red sanders smuggling, till then a localised activity, to the national-level. Released in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi, the film depicted the murky business from a smuggler’s perspective and made the endemic wood popular across India. A sequel to the film is expected to be released towards the end of this year.
Smuggling network
The smuggling activity, though witnessed in the form of sporadic incidents in the past, has turned out to be a lucrative profession in the last couple of decades. As many venture into the field to make a fast buck, the heightened activity started posing a challenge to the field staff guarding the thickets. Many lives have been lost on both sides, but the craze for smuggling has not died down.
The multi-layered smuggling network has kingpins at the top, pulling the strings from unknown destinations, while the well-connected mafia based in metropolitan cities such as Bengaluru and Chennai monitor the movement of logs.
At the local level, ‘maistries’ or manpower agents handle field operation by hiring workers, mostly locals or from the hilly terrains of Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Salem and Villupuram districts of neighbouring Tamil Nadu. The tribal workers, who form the bottom-most layer of the pyramid, are the ones who venture into the porous forest to fell the trees and bring out the logs. They are the ones caught in the crossfire to get arrested or assaulted, while those in the upper echelons generally walk scot-free.
By officialising what has been going on under the radar, the current auction process is expected to be a two-pronged strategy to fill the government’s coffers and also neutralise the well-oiled smuggling network.
