Andhra Pradesh government had pinned high hopes on the precious Red Sandal wood to fill its empty coffers. The state already made a whopping 1000 Crore for selling a part of seized timber and now it is seeking the return of the prized wood seized by police in various states.
The state government had already written to the Center and the principal secretaries (forest) of different states asking them to return the red sanders logs since red sanders is endemic to Andhra Pradesh, it has the right over the seized forest produce.About 5,000 tonnes of red sanders logs were confiscated across the country in the past two years.
The state will be bearing the transportation expenses for the return of these logs which were mainly situated in Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Mizoram. No state have the right to sell these logs but AP can make about 2000 Crore from these confiscated logs.
