A spurt in red sanders smuggling in the last couple of years has flummoxed the forest department. The officials are at their wits’ end trying to figure out ways to contain the menace, which has been increasing alarmingly.
Red sanders, also popularly referred to as red gold, is endemic to Seshachalam Hills in Chittoor and Kadapa districts of Andhra Pradesh. It is also found in parts of Nellore and Prakasam districts.
Red sanders smuggling has been going on for decades, with a few villagers staying near forest fringes being involved by middlemen on behalf of big smugglers.
It was basically unorganised crime. Since the risk factor was high compared to the revenues earned, operations were on a much smaller scale.
However, increasing demand in the international market has led to the spurt in smuggling of the red gold, a forest higher official said. A few decades ago, there was a huge demand for the logs in Japan, but now, the demand has spread to China, Taiwan, Singapore and other far eastern countries.
“Earlier, because the red sanders smuggling was on a much smaller scale, forest officials used to have an idea of which locals were involved and take corrective measures accordingly. But today, with increased international demand, it had taken the form of organised crime,” he said.
According to the data available with the forest department, in Tirupati Wild Life Management Circle, against 18 cases registered in 2000- 01 (21 tonnes of red sanders seized), the number of cases in 2011-12 has increased to 308 (277 tonnes seized) and is continuing to rise. This fact was confirmed also by the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI), which had made several seizures of the logs across the country in the last decade.
According to their annual report, in 2011-12, 611.76 metric tonnes of red sanders was seized, while only 373.3 metric tonnes were seized in 2010-11. It is reported that the numbers that were unaccounted for could be double the seized contraband. Recent trends indicate that lumberjacks are being brought from the border districts of Tamil Nadu like Vellore and Tiruvallur. The group of wood cutters is not small, with the number ranging between 70 and 160 on an average.
“They are dropped at some place along the forest. They then trek to the designated areas inside the forest, axe the precious trees, dress them up and leave. Since they are handsomely paid, they take the risk,” another forest higher official said. With increased vigilance not only by forest department but also by police, revenue intelligence as well as customs, the smugglers are adopting different ways to smuggle the logs out of the country.
Till a couple of years ago, the red gold used to be smuggled out through sea ports. But increased vigilance and seizure of a large quantity of the precious timber at Chennai and Mumbai ports in recent times has seen an increase in transportation of the sanders by road.
Sources in the forest department said that the logs were being taken out through West Bengal, Manipur to Myanmar and from there, to far eastern countries like Japan. The seizure of large quantities of red sanders in Bihar also indicate that the timber was being smuggled out to Nepal from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and from there to China.
The forest department reportedly is not equipped enough to deal with organised crime that the red sanders smuggling has become. Given the high cost of the logs in international market, smugglers are ready to take any risk. Now the red sanders smuggling has become a law and order problem too.
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