The wood is an excellent material for carving and the oil is being extensively
used in perfumery and pharmaceutical industries. Sapwood of Sandalwood is white
or yellow in colour and not scented, but is used for wood turning, particularly for
toy making and is extensively now used in making agarbattis (incense sticks).
Sandalwood has inseparable history with Karnataka (the Princely State of
Mysore, post independence period became Mysore State after reorganisation of
states in 1956 and was subsequently renamed as Karnataka in 1973). Much before
the reorganisation of this Princely State of Mysore, B.M. Srikantaiah, popularly
known as Kannada Kanva for being the custodian of Kannada literature and the
champion of the Kannada literary movement composed a poem on the Princely
State of Mysore in which he describes that Princely State of Mysore as Gandhada
Nadu (shrine of Sandalwood). The abundance of Sandalwood availability also
corroborated this description and it became such a household name that the
Kannada language film industry located in Bengaluru has a sobriquet as
Sandalwood, which is a parlance to Bollywood for Hindi language industry located
in Mumbai and Hollywood for English language film industry located in Los
Angeles.
2 Research on Sandalwood
It is a small to medium evergreen partial root parasite tree; and has been extensively
overexploited for its commercial value because of which International Conservation
for Nature has categorised it as vulnerable. Perhaps one of those few trees in the
realm of Indian trees in which research work has been carried out for more than
140 years considering the first report of being a partial root parasite was published
by Scot (1871). It was in 1899 that Sandalwood spike disease was reported (Mc
Carthy 1899). The spread of this was so dreadful and rampant that between 1903
and 1916, more than a million trees were removed/killed in Mysore State (7,00,000)
and the erstwhile Coorg State and the estimated possible loss was to an extent of
three and half million rupees during that time (Rajan 1992). This may also be one of
the reasons prompting the Raja Rishi Nalwadi Krisharaja Wodeyar (1884–1940),
Maharaja of Mysore to seriously look into the issue of Sandalwood spike disease
and Forest Research Laboratory was established in 1938. With its reorganisation in
1956 as Regional Research Centre of Forest Research Institute and Colleges, an
exclusive division named after Sandalwood Spike was started. In 1977, Sandal
Research Centre (SRC) was set up to carry out research on wide-ranging aspects of
silviculture, genetics and management of Indian Sandalwood which heralded a new
beginning in Sandalwood research. As an initiative to strengthen the Sandalwood
improvement research work, the first countrywide survey of Sandalwood was
carried out during 1978–1980. It was reported that Sandalwood was distributed in
an area of 9034 km
2 , and *90 % of Sandalwood being found in Southern part of
Karnataka and Northern part of Tamil Nadu (Rai 1990) apart from the small
population in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, but spread of Sandalwood had been
The Population Decline of Indian Sandalwood and People’s Role …
379
used in perfumery and pharmaceutical industries. Sapwood of Sandalwood is white
or yellow in colour and not scented, but is used for wood turning, particularly for
toy making and is extensively now used in making agarbattis (incense sticks).
Sandalwood has inseparable history with Karnataka (the Princely State of
Mysore, post independence period became Mysore State after reorganisation of
states in 1956 and was subsequently renamed as Karnataka in 1973). Much before
the reorganisation of this Princely State of Mysore, B.M. Srikantaiah, popularly
known as Kannada Kanva for being the custodian of Kannada literature and the
champion of the Kannada literary movement composed a poem on the Princely
State of Mysore in which he describes that Princely State of Mysore as Gandhada
Nadu (shrine of Sandalwood). The abundance of Sandalwood availability also
corroborated this description and it became such a household name that the
Kannada language film industry located in Bengaluru has a sobriquet as
Sandalwood, which is a parlance to Bollywood for Hindi language industry located
in Mumbai and Hollywood for English language film industry located in Los
Angeles.
2 Research on Sandalwood
It is a small to medium evergreen partial root parasite tree; and has been extensively
overexploited for its commercial value because of which International Conservation
for Nature has categorised it as vulnerable. Perhaps one of those few trees in the
realm of Indian trees in which research work has been carried out for more than
140 years considering the first report of being a partial root parasite was published
by Scot (1871). It was in 1899 that Sandalwood spike disease was reported (Mc
Carthy 1899). The spread of this was so dreadful and rampant that between 1903
and 1916, more than a million trees were removed/killed in Mysore State (7,00,000)
and the erstwhile Coorg State and the estimated possible loss was to an extent of
three and half million rupees during that time (Rajan 1992). This may also be one of
the reasons prompting the Raja Rishi Nalwadi Krisharaja Wodeyar (1884–1940),
Maharaja of Mysore to seriously look into the issue of Sandalwood spike disease
and Forest Research Laboratory was established in 1938. With its reorganisation in
1956 as Regional Research Centre of Forest Research Institute and Colleges, an
exclusive division named after Sandalwood Spike was started. In 1977, Sandal
Research Centre (SRC) was set up to carry out research on wide-ranging aspects of
silviculture, genetics and management of Indian Sandalwood which heralded a new
beginning in Sandalwood research. As an initiative to strengthen the Sandalwood
improvement research work, the first countrywide survey of Sandalwood was
carried out during 1978–1980. It was reported that Sandalwood was distributed in
an area of 9034 km
2 , and *90 % of Sandalwood being found in Southern part of
Karnataka and Northern part of Tamil Nadu (Rai 1990) apart from the small
population in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, but spread of Sandalwood had been
The Population Decline of Indian Sandalwood and People’s Role …
379