Pushpa 2 movie is making waves in the theatres these days. Allu Arjun's film has become the biggest Hindi box office film. The story of the film is woven around the smuggling of red sandalwood. Which is run by a syndicate associated with 'Pushpa'. Pushpa is ready to die for the smuggling of red sandalwood. After all, what is so special about red sandalwood, how much is its price per kilo and how big is this business, let's find out…

Red sandalwood does not have fragrance.ce
The special thing is that red sandalwood does not have the fragrance of white or yellow sandalwood. However, it gives a mild smell when freshly cut and rubbed on sand. Still, its prices seem to be skyrocketing. The red sandalwood of Seshachalam forest spread in the hills of Tirupati and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh is considered as expensive as gold. This wood is in demand abroad. You must have also seen in the film that Pushpa wants to go to the international market to smuggle this sandalwood.

Export is banned

It is said that earlier this wood was sent to Japan, Singapore, and UAE apart from China. Although according to the foreign trade policy, the export of red sandalwood from India is banned, due to high demand abroad, it is smuggled. Red sandalwood is used in cosmetics, traditional medicinal products, and high-quality furniture and handicrafts, etc. With the increase in demand, the decreasing number of red sandalwood trees has also become a matter of concern. It is said that in the last few years, the number of red sandalwood trees has reduced by about 50 percent.

How much is the price?

A red sandalwood tree is ready in about 20-25 years. Talking about the price of red sandalwood is about 20-25 thousand rupees per kg in the Indian market. According to media reports, about 20,000 tonnes of red sandalwood was smuggled from India from 2016 to 2020. Recently, the police recovered red sanderwood near Guntur on the Chennai-Kolkata highway, which was worth Rs 3.5 crore.

This is how smugglers smuggle

Smugglers try new ways to smuggle it. Sometimes it has been smuggled under tiles, sometimes under A4 size paper, and sometimes under water. Recently, the police arrested two smugglers from Tamil Nadu on charges of smuggling. The special thing is that the wood was hidden under a pack of A4 white paper sheets in a truck.

At the same time, in October last year, Rajasthan Police caught some smugglers smuggling red sandalwood. From whom about 3800 pieces of rare illegal red sandalwood were recovered. Which was worth around Rs 12 crore in the international market.

A big disclosure was made in Maharashtra.
Similarly, the smuggling of red sandalwood was also revealed in Maharashtra. In which 6 tonnes of red sandalwood was hidden behind polished granite slabs and cement bricks. After this, a search was conducted in a warehouse in Nashik, in which two metric tonnes of red sandalwood were seized. The agency had arrested five syndicate members including the exporter, commission broker, warehouse manager, and transporter in this case.

(PC: Freepik)