India's Contraband Wildlife
Red Sanders
A high-valued, fragrant timber native to Andhra Pradesh in southern India, red sanders is smuggled across many state and international borders to be sold illegally in Japan, Singapore, and increasingly, China. Over the centuries, this prized wood has been part of dowries in Japan and used to make traditional musical instruments. Now, it is feeding burgeoning demand in China, where it is used to make incense, medicines, facial creams, fragrant furniture and other materials. The trade route is usually via Nepal and Myanmar, though the sea is also used. The species is covered under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which forbids international trade of endangered timber as logs, but recent seizures in Nepal and in Southeast Asia suggest increasingly quantities are being smuggled.