Sandalwood fragrance oil:

Latest smuggling racket bared

By Kurulu Kariyakarawana

Sri Lanka Customs at the Bandaranaike International Airport detect many illegal items being smuggled out of the country by individuals or groups on a daily basis. From large sums of undeclared money to valuables like gold and precious stones, narcotics, antiques and special plants and animals which are a variety of items that were detected by officials from time to time. Adding something new to the list is the smuggling of fragrance oil made from Sandalwood, which is soon becoming an endangered plant due to unlawful felling of sandalwood trees to extract the oil which has a high demand in the international market especially in India.

Sandalwood fragrance oil - the newest smugglimg commodity raking in millions

Coca plant which resemble the sandalwood plant

Red Sanders - a priceless commodity

Sandalwood sticks

This came to light when a recent attempt to smuggle out a large stock of sandalwood oil worth millions of Rupees was thwarted by a Customs official at the BIA in Katunayake. Two barrels of concentrated sandalwood oil weighing over 50kilograms had been received by the BIA air cargo unit through a courier agency.

Contraband

The contraband which was reportedly to be sent to an Asian country had been declared under a different name. But when Customs officials checked it on suspicion they found that it was concentrated sandalwood oil. The stock of fragrance oil had been valued at over Rs.10million.

The case was then handed over to the Customs Cultural Heritage and Bio Diversity Protection Unit for further investigations and it was found that smuggling sandalwood oil was the latest modus operandi.

Special unit

The special unit had been investigating a series of sandalwood smuggling attempts for the past five months and with the latest detection they realised that the perpetrators have adopted a new ruse to smuggle the contraband which goes undetected and also has a better market price for the enhanced value added product.

In the past decades smugglers were sending sandalwood as chopped pieces, sticks or blocks through various means. Since it was not a prohibited item to export people had been taking them in large quantities through legal channels.

But soon after the product was enlisted in the Flora and Fauna Act as a prohibited item for export among several important other plant products that is used for the manufacture of fragrance oil, officials started to conduct detections and enhance surveillance operations. Sandalwood was mainly smuggled into India and Pakistan where it was a lucrative trade.

Customs officials have found that there were instances where even families from countries like Pakistan had arrived merely to buy sandalwood carried in personal luggage. In some cases families have carried around 100kilograms of sandalwood divided among members under the nose of Customs officials.

Raw

This was a difficult method and to carry sandalwood in its raw form was too heavy and bulky. Smugglers looked for new ways to export the product. Sending sandalwood in a concentrated oil form was successful until the recent detection made at the airport. It is also learnt that there is a better market for concentrated sandalwood oil than for mere chunks of the same wood.

Customs Deputy Director ,Samantha Gunasekara, In-Charge of Cultural Heritage and Bio Diversity Protection Unit said that currently there is a trend rapidly picking up in the country to fell sandalwood trees for smuggling purposes.

A number of instances were reported from various parts of the country where fine grown sandalwood trees had been felled during the recent past. Trees that were grown in the forests, privately owned estates, domestic compounds as well as ones grown for medicinal purposes at the Wickramarachchi Ayurvedic Hospital in Gampaha and Sunethradevi Pirivena in Pepiliyana had been targeted by this new group of illicit lumberjacks.

Most cases were reported from the central range in Kandy, Badulla and Nuwara Eliya where a lush growth of sandalwood is reported. It is learnt that the illicit wood cutters have even used advance methods like electric chain saws to cut trees in a split second.. These expert lumberjacks carry out this mostly in the night time due to less disturbances from the public. When a tree is found they quickly tie a rope around the top part of the trunk and pulling it towards the ground and tie the other end to another nearby tree.

Then the cutters would do their job in few seconds and separate the main trunk with branches and part with it without much ado. Sometimes they come for the bottom portion of the trunk and the roots on a later date when the situation is calmed.

Felled

Likewise a number of trees were felled during the past few months and sandalwood is not the only 'victim 'of these smugglers. Rare plants like Red Sanders (Red Sandalwood) and Wallapatta (Gyrinops Walla) another rare plant used to extract expensive fragrance essence have become 'victims' of these illicit wood choppers.

There were even instances where these smugglers have tricked people to give away their precious sandalwood trees for a mere Rs.5, 000 to Rs.20, 000. On one occasion a person in Thalathuoya had been tricked by wood choppers for his sandalwood trees.

They had claimed that they were not sandalwood but Nedun Trees (Pericopsis Mooniana) and had asked for the trees in exchange for several sandalwood plants. The housekeeper had happily agreed and let the choppers cut his precious sandalwood trees and received several sandalwood plants. Later he realised that the plants he had been given were not sandalwood but Coca plants. The Coca plant from which Cocaine is extracted from is similar externally to the sandalwood plant and only an expert could tell the difference. Even in a move under a government economic development project, Coca plants were distributed mistakenly as sandalwood plants.

The Customs Bio Diversity Protection is keeping a close eye on these incidents being reported frequently to track the perpetrators and put a stop to this activity.

Exporting sandalwood is prohibited in countries such as India for many years and notorious figures like Veerappan aka Sandalwood Veerappan had engaged in felling sandalwood trees for ages and had smuggled thousands of tonnes that incurred a loss of corers of rupees to the Indian government.

Fragrance oil scam

Investigations into the fragrance oil scam is underway with Customs officials going trailing the people responsible for the illicit consignment of two barrels of concentrated sandalwood oil. It is found that the courier agency responsible for the consignment was the same company that couriered 323kilograms of Kothala Himbutu a few months ago. Also the consigner was reportedly a private company in Colombo and is being interrogated.

Sandalwood is a rare precious plant Sri Lanka had in abundance for many years. The Customs Bio Diversity Protection Unit request the public to be vigilant over this type of activity and to report such cases to the relevant authorities immediately to save the valuable plant for future generations.