Hyderabad: The forest department has taken up large-scale plantation of teakwood in the Haritha Haram project. Seeing the demand for teakwood in the state, the forest department is also encouraging farmers to grow teak wood trees in their fields.
Forest officials have seized about 659 cubic metric tons of smuggled wood worth around Rs 1.58 crore. The forest and police departments have booked about 701 cases and arrested 486 people involved in smuggling of wood. All this in a span of one month, soon after the joint operation of police and forest department began.
Given that 80 per cent of the smuggled wood is teak, the forest department has taken to planting teak trees and one of their biggest nurseries is of teak. But it takes at least 45 years to harvest the wood. Teak trees initially have sapwood and start developing heartwood only after 25 to 30 years. The more the heartwood, the better the quality of wood.
A senior official of the forest department said that over time, the sapwood will decrease and the heartwood will increase. “Private growers will harvest the teak after 45 to 50 years. But we consider 60 years as the harvest period. Apart from growing the teak in the Haritha Haram project in large quantities, we are also encouraging private land holders to take up teak plantation. The forest department will provide all the permissions to harvest and transport it.”
