From theaters to OTT, ‘Pushpa 2: The Rule’ is discussed everywhere. Allu Arjun’s film has broken all the records of earnings. The film has done more than one thousand crores business in India, which is still going on. At the same time, Pushpa-2 has earned around two thousand crores. The film is based on Lal Chandan smuggler Pushpa, in which the story of sandalwood wood smuggling from the Seshachalam forests and then in the global market is shown. But is there really any place in the country where such precious red sandalwood is produced and how much is the price of this wood abroad.
One kilo price up to 1-2 lakhs
The most high quality red sandalwood in the Seshachalam forest of Andhra Pradesh is where the story is shown in this film. This entire forest is spread in Kadappa and Tirupati districts, which is also considered a stronghold of red sandalwood smuggling. The sandalwood here is sent to countries like China, Japan and Russia, where it is used to prepare instruments, medicines and furniture. By the way, the price of sandalwood is 50 to 70 thousand rupees per kg. But the price of high quality one kilo red sandalwood can be from one to two lakhs in the global market. However, to prevent smuggling completely, the government has completely banned red sandalwood trees in the forests and banned its export.
‘Blood sandalwood’ in the forest of Seshachalam
The forest of Seshachalam is spread over 5 lakh hectares of area and mostly has mountainous regions. The special thing is that the most advanced red sandalwood in the country is found in these hills which are also called blood sandalwood or red gold. This red sandalwood is so rare that task force personnel are deployed in the protection of these trees and the cutting of sandalwood trees is completely banned in the state. However, due to smuggling and other reasons, the number of these trees has now decreased by more than 50 percent.
There is a sale in China-Japan
According to the report of India Today, till a few years ago, red sandalwood made up to about 1200 percent profit and this benefit became the reason for the end of this wood. Sandalwood smugglers used to risk their lives in the greed to earn thick profits and transport two thousand tons of red sandalwood every year to the market of China via Chennai, Tuticorin, Mumbai and Kolkata Port via Nepal and Tibet. A large number of sandalwood smuggling was hidden between mustard cake, coconut fiber and salt. In 2015, several smugglers were killed during the encounter in the mission to stop it. In order to stop this, a provision of 11 years of jail sentence has been made for smuggling.
Sandalwood was initially used to frame a picture of deities and make cans. But in the year 1994, the government of Andhra Pradesh banned its harvesting and taking it out of the state. However, this step was not enough to stop smuggling. Sandalwood is used to make furniture in a country like China and Japan and its demand is also high there. Apart from this, red sandalwood is also used in making medicine, perfume and power enhancer medicine. It was these needs that made this wood rare, which opened the way for big money.
History does not become red sandalwood?
Red sandalwood is on the verge of extinction due to forest harvesting, smuggling and crop yield. It takes about 40-50 years for a sandalwood tree to be fully prepared, on the contrary, illegal harvesting is continuously for the purpose of earning profits. For this reason, now this blood sandalwood has come on the verge of ending. This is the reason that Lal Chandan has been placed in the list of IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), in which its yield is put in the category close to danger.