India now needs to import an expensive product it once was the leading producer of. The demand for teak—the premier hardwood sought for its durability, and water- and rot-resistant qualities—has soared in recent times because of its use in house structures, cabinetry and boat building. India hosts 44 percent of the global teak plantation area, harvesting around 3,00,000 cubic metres annually. Yet, it has to import 60 percent of its annual domestic consumption of over 20,00,000 cubic metres due to a sharp increase in demand that outpaces supply, thanks mainly to rapid urbanisation. Ecologists are warning that this trend is leading to immense harm in the form of illegal tree-felling and cross-border smuggling.
Experts have also pointed at correcting the history of the tropical tree in India. They have shown that teak or Tectona grandis was not first sown in India by the British in 1844 at Kerala’s Nilambur, as forestry and horticulture students have been taught for generations. It was planted and harvested 164 years earlier by Maratha King Shivaji’s admiral Kanhoji Angre—in 1680 in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri—to facilitate ship-building and raise a home-built navy.
Publications that support this historical correction include This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India co-authored by eminent ecologist Madhav Gadgil, founder of the Centre for Ecological Studies at Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science who passed away on Wednesday, and noted historian Ramachandra Guha. Neena Ambre Rao’s Forest Ecology in India: Colonial Maharashtra 1850-1950 explores how British colonial policies and local interactions reshaped Maharashtra’s forest ecosystems through administrative changes, cultural shifts and resistance movements. It cites the minutes of Colonel George Jervis, chief engineer of the Bombay Presidency in 1843, highlighting Kanhoji Angre’s supervision of planting and conservation of teak south of Kolvan and Apti near Pune, and extensive plantations at Ratnagiri in the 17th century.
Today’s demand-driven crisis is compounded by policies banning teak felling in natural forests, regulations for production on private land, the long rotation period of the tree discouraging fresh private initiatives, and lower output due to monoculture plantations depleting soil nutrients. The Union and state governments must work together to strike a balance between protecting forests while increasing teak production. The historical correction could be a boost to trigger India’s return as the leading global producer.