VIJAYAWADA: With statistics showing that regular auction has brought down the illegal trade of red sanders, the State government is keenly pursuing the proposal it sent to the Union government for exporting 5,000 metric tonnes (MTs) of the precious wood available at the Central Red Sanders godown in Tirupati. The government has proposed that it would auction at least 1,000 MTs of the precious wood annually over the next five years.
The officials observed that the number of illegal trade activities, when there was no auction of red sanders, was significantly higher compared to the times when the State government went for global auction of the wood. “The annual global demand for red sanders is estimated to be around 1,000 MTs. There were no sales between 2006 and 2008, resulting in high seizures as illegal trade continued to meet the demand. Between 2009-10 and 2013-14, the sale was suspended and the seizures shot up. When the regular sale began in 2014-15, the seizures drastically went down. Subsequently, we regularly sold red sanders through global tenders and the illegal activity decreased by and large,” explained principal chief conservator of forest (head of forest forces) N Prateep Kumar.
“So, we are pursuing the proposal we sent to the Union government to export 5,000 MTs available in our state-of-the-art godown in Tirupati. We proposed that we would auction a minimum 1,000 MTs a year. As soon as we get the clearance, we would go ahead with the auction,” the PCCF (HOFF) added. It is learnt that the global sale would be done in a phased manner.
Barring the years in which no sale happened, the State forest department, through AP Forest Development Corporation Ltd, has sold 900 MT annually on an average. During the years of sale, the State government was permitted by Union Ministry of Forest and Environment, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to sell 8,498 MT of the red wood. Of this, 8,180 MTs of the wood has been auctioned.
“The process of sale and export was to be completed by December 31, 2019. Since 318 MTs are left, we sought the permission of the Government of India. The MOEF has in principle approved to extend the date by a year till December 31, 2020. We are awaiting the DGFT clearance,” Prateep Kumar noted.
