KATHMANDU, Jan 19: The government has decided to allow India to take back all seized red sandalwood weighing thousands of kilograms and worth millions of rupees.
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A high-ranking government official told myrepublica.com that the cabinet meeting last Thursday took a decision to this effect in response to a request made by the southern neighbor on December 1, 2008.
Nepali authorities, with the help of the Young Communist League (YCL), had seized altogether 243,529.5 kilograms of red sandalwood from different parts of the country last year when Matrika Yadav was forest minister, in a bid to check smuggling of the endangered fragrant wood to China and uphold a commitment to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
CITES, an international agreement between governments and aims at ensuring that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival, lists red sandalwood as a plant whose trade is illegal. [break]
According to the cabinet decision, India has been allowed to take back only 54,112 kg of the red sandalwood immediately as the rest of the red sandalwood – 189,091 kg – is subjudice at different courts in Nepal.
“The rest of the red sandalwood will be returned to India only after the cases are finalized by the courts,” said Dr Annapurna Das, spokesperson at the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation which presented the proposal to allow India to take back the red sandalwood.
In a letter dated December 1, 2008, India had requested the Nepal government to “return the seized red sandalwood at the earliest”, reminding Nepal of its obligation under CITES. CITES, of which Nepal is a signatory, requires a signatory country to return all illegal wild animals and plants to the country of origin. In this case, all the seized red sandalwood originated from India, according to government officials.
The government officials said that they had been allocating scare police personnel and resources to preserve the seized red sandalwood currently stored in different parts of the country.
Red sandalwood, also known as Rakta Chandana, is used in Ayurvedic medicine as an antiseptic, wound-healing agent, and as an anti-acne treatment, according to officials. It is smuggled from India to China via Nepal. Officials believe that the endangered wood has high demand in China where it is used to make incense, medicines, facial creams, fragrant furniture and other materials, among other things.
kiran@myrepublica.com
