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Scent of a scandal: Was the fragrance of sandalwood imported?

The fragrance of sandalwood wafting through your home may be imported, finds Yogesh Pawar as he delves into the reasons for the acute shortage of the prized wood

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Did you know that the sandalwood in the soap, perfume, and agarbatti you use may not be Indian? Rampant poaching and lopsided governmental policies have led to a severe shortage in the supply of this fragrant, expensive wood. And one casualty is the Mysore Sandal Soap factory in Karnataka that is running at less than one-tenth its capacity and has to import inferior sandalwood from Australia.

"Like most MNCs who make sandalwood products, we're resorting to importing Australian sandalwood to help us keep up at least minimally with demand," admits Lokesh Iyer, deputy general manager, marketing, at Karnataka Soaps & Detergents Limited (KSDL) which manufactures the iconic soap.

However, both the quality and quantity of oil extracted from Australian sandalwood is hardly a patch on the native Indian species. "The organic compound santalol which gives sandalwood its fragrance varies with each species. Sandalwood grown in South India yields nearly 55-60 kg of oil per tonne while the Australian sandalwood is not as viable since it yields all of 15-18 kg of oil per tonne."

Fragrant legacy

Then called the Government Sandalwood Oil factory, KSDL was established by Mysore Maharaja Nalwadi Krishna Raja Wodeyar in 1916 to extract oil from sandalwood. Keen to propel his princely state on the global map, the maharaja introduced "the world's best natural sandalwood oil" and made it the "fragrance ambassador of India". After the first extraction at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, the high quality sandalwood oil was introduced to the world by the factory.

Two years later, a visiting foreigner gifted a pack of soaps made with sandalwood oil to the maharaja who then wanted to get it locally made. Local industrial chemist SG Shastry was despatched to London for three months to train in soap and perfumery technology. The sandal perfume he developed on his return became the base fragrance along with other natural essential oils like vetivert, patchouli, geranium, palm rosa, orange and petitgrain for the Mysore sandal soap which was, and continues to be, the factory's flagship product.

Legacy lags

The company went from strength to strength for over seven decades before hitting an all time low in the early 90s. "Post-liberalisation, many MNCs set up shop in India with competitive manufacturing and marketing systems in place. This offered stiff competition to KSDL which began to suffer huge losses. So much so that in 1992, the financially precarious company had to be registered with the Board for Industries and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR)," recounts Iyer.

Dogged persistence for the next 11 years helped wipe out losses of Rs 98 crore and bring the company out of BIFR. Profits rose every year after that – till now. "The current shortage in supply of sandal makes the 1992 crisis seem like a mere blip," observes Iyer.

In the beginning of 2015, all the company was left with was 2,800 kg of oil which would lasted only till year-end. "We shut down the facility to stock up on wood and began operations in April 2016 a month before our centenary celebrations. Viably we could only run the show till September 2016 after which we hit the rut again."

Greed over need

So what is causing the shortage?

Dr Prabhakar Bhatt, a former researcher with the Indian Institute of Science who is now with Earth Watch Institute, has this to say, "What else do you expect when man puts greed over need?"

Rampant poaching of sandalwood has led to widespread destruction of this otherwise hardy survivor, he explains. "The government reaction did more harm than good. Just like they think putting up speed breakers even on highways, instead of managing traffic and penalising offenders, will reduce accidents, the government discouraged cultivation of sandalwood by private farmers saying they would be open to being attacked by sandalwood smugglers."

"Instead of going after poachers, vigilante officials and politicians began targeting people who had sandalwood trees in their Bangalore/Mysore gardens if they so much as cut a twig/branch. Instead of taking pride, the owners saw trees as a source of harassment," he adds.

This made poachers more brazen and many bungalow owners in Bangalore's tony Sadashiv Nagar neighbourhood watched their trees being hacked away. Says one such resident who fears giving her name, "Forest and police authorities came the next day and began harassing us. Fed up of the repeated questioning and visits to the cops, we had to pay them off to make it all go away."

The extent of the poachers' brazenness and the impotence of authorities is laid bare from the fact that sandalwood trees from highest security zones in the heart of Bangalore like the gubernatorial residence Raj Bhavan and the Karnataka High Court have also been hacked and carried away. No surprises then that the area under sandalwood cultivation in the state is now a paltry 1,800 hectares as compared to over 40,000 acres in the 1950s.

Kerala bucks trend

India's single largest sandalwood forest with over 5,000 trees thrives in Kerala's Idduki district. 40 km from Munnar, Marayoor is a rain shadow village on the eastern side of the Western Ghats and is bordered by Tamil Nadu. Reduced rainfall has only helped the well-protected forest thrive.

In the early 2000s, the proactive Kerala forest department issued shoot-at-sight orders against poachers. "All it actually needed was two shootings. One poacher died and the other was injured and handicapped for life. That worked like a deterrent for people from getting into the fenced off forests," points out a senior forest official posted there. "I don't know why the governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have not been able to put such deterrence in place?"

Missing Veerappan

Forest officials in Karnataka say notorious brigand and sandalwood smuggler Koose Muniswamy Veerappan was actually a blessing in disguise. "While he indulged in a lot of sandalwood and ivory smuggling himself, he would simply kill any other smuggler who set foot in his turf extending from the Satyamangala forests down into Tamil Nadu. After he was gunned down in October 2004, the other smugglers have had a field day," says a senior official on condition of anonymity. "Unlike their latest weapons, we have to make do with rifles and batons."

The shortage is now forcing the forest department to support farmers from Kustagi, Chitradurga, Shimoga and Tumkuru to grow sandalwood. "But it'll take a decade for trees to mature and develop adequate reserves of sandalwood oil. Since poachers target trees even barely two-three years old, one is not too confident all or any of these trees will make it," laments Bhatt.

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