The ‘Green Gold’ (Tendu leaf or bidi patta) of Chhattisgarh is in good demand throughout the country due to its high quality which also fetches good price.
To take advantage of this, during procurement season, smugglers become active and smuggle large quantity of tendu leaves into Chhattisgarh from neighbouring States, especially in areas bordering Andhra Pradesh, and in their bid to reap in good prices they mix up both leaves together which alters the quality and pricing of Chhattisgarhi leaves as well.
To stop this smuggling through the interstate border with Andhra Pradesh these leaves would now be kept in separate godowns to avoid their mixing, this was decided in an inter-State meeting of forest officials of the two states held in Andhra Pradesh recently.
According to Bastar forest conservator M T Nandi, for stopping the smuggling of Tendu leaves as well as wood it has been decided to keep vigil on the tendu leaf procurement centres located in inter-State border areas besides formation of a joint anti smuggling team. For which forest barriers will also be established in border areas.
According to him for stopping the smuggling of timber from Chhattisgarh, control rooms will be opened in Maharashtra, Odisha as well as in Chhattisgarh. In stopping the smuggling of tendu leaves and timber the department will also take help of the police department. The State Governments concerned have been informed about the decision taken at the meeting, he added.
Notably, an inter-state meeting of forest officials were held in Hyderabad located ‘Aranya Bhawan’ on April 18 which was attended by Andhra Pradesh Principal Chief Conservator of Forest S Kumar, managing director of Chhattisgarh Forest department A K Singh besides Khammam and Warangal district forest conservators, Bastar forest conservator M T Nandi, Bijapur and Sukma’s divisional forest officer and DFOs of Bhadrachalam and Karim Nagar districts of Andhra Pradesh.