Global demand stokes illegal rosewood felling

The steep demand within the worldwide marketplace for musical devices and furnishings customary out of rosewood had stoked the widespread illegal felling of the endangered tropical hardwood tree from income land assigned to farmers for cultivation throughout the 2020-21 interval, in line with the Forest Department investigators.

Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran advised The Puucho that the federal government gave equal significance to conserving worthwhile bushes and defending farmers’ curiosity.

He had requested the forest vigilance to take inventory of protected bushes on land assigned to farmers. “I expect them to give a set of recommendations on how to monitor the health of the trees and preserve them without hampering the livelihood of farmers,” he stated.

The vigilance had opened an inquiry into the profitable black marketplace for the endangered species. It would audit the State’s “forest wealth” misplaced to illegal loggers. Investigators stated a bulk of the coveted rosewood resulted in China. Misdeclaration of cargo at ports facilitated the racket, they stated.

Across the State, an “influential criminal mafia” had felled protected bushes by misinterpreting an October 2020 income order permitting farmers to reap frequent hardwood they cultivated on their land.

The detection of the felling of 101 rosewood bushes in Muttil South village in Wayanad district was simply the tip of the iceberg. A workforce led by Wayanad DFO, Flying Squad, P. Dhanesh Kumar had seized all the bulk of the estimated 202 cubic meters of wooden stolen from Muttil.

Investigators stated one cubic meter of rosewood value ₹7 lakh within the black market. The value typically accrued several-fold when the timber discovered its approach to international markets. The mafia had exploited the financial downturn attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic to persuade financially hard-pressed farmers to promote the rosewood on their plots for a pittance, investigators stated.

The Congress and the BJP had accused the federal government of rescinding the Revenue Department order solely in February regardless of purple flags raised by District Collectors and forest officers as early as November final. They alleged the delay had labored to the benefit of the forest mafia.

The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) is investigating the corruption angle within the case. The Crime Branch is wanting on the different points of the crime, together with the smuggling angle.