Reassessing Indian Sandalwood Grading: Towards a Comprehensive Market Friendly System

Arunkumar A.N.; Rajesh S. Kallaje

doi:10.36808/if/2024/v150i3/170380

Reassessing Indian Sandalwood Grading: Towards a Comprehensive Market Friendly System

Authors

Arunkumar A.N. Silviculture and Forest Management Division, Institute of Wood Science and Technology (ICFRE-IWST) 18th Cross, Malleswaram, Bengaluru â€“ 560 003
Rajesh S. Kallaje Silviculture and Forest Management Division, Institute of Wood Science and Technology (ICFRE-IWST) 18th Cross, Malleswaram, Bengaluru â€“ 560 003

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36808/if/2024/v150i3/170380

Keywords:

Indian Sandalwood, Cultivation, Classification, Heartwood.

Abstract

Indian Sandalwood (Santalum album), a commercially important tree species, is globally known for its aromatic heartwood and oil. Due to drastic reduction of large-sized trees in its natural population, the species has been categorised as 'vulnerable' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In the recent past, there has been a great interest in sandalwood cultivation across India. In Karnataka, farmers can sell sandalwood only to three government agencies who fix the purchase price based on 18 grades of the wood. This issue of deciding the grade of the wood leads to confusion and subjectivity during the sale of sandalwood by the farmers. The authors discuss the need for reclassification and the probable methods to grade heartwood so that both the farmers and the sandalwood sector arrive at a win-win situation.

References

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