The petitioner, C H Basappanavar, a former chief conservator of forest in his PIL has sought directions to create special sandalwood production divisions in each of the districts to regain the lost glory of the State.
The petitioner said that the State with a contribution of about 2,200 tonnes (of the total 6,000 tonnes in India), is now facing scarcity. The once leading producer of sandal oil in the world has now turned an importer and has lost crores of rupees.
He said that the State has seven sandalwood depots including Bangalore, Mysore, Shimoga, Hassan, Kushalnagar, Dharwad and Tarikere. There used to be 15,000-20,000 tonnes of sandalwood stock at any given time from various sandal depots put together.
The petitioner has sought directions to initiate a sandalwood development project with an ‘extraction cycle’ of 20 years to regain the lost glory along with a sandalwood management plan.
Published 25 June 2009, 17:40 IST