KSDL facing shortage of sandalwood; embarks on novel plan

Bangalore, July 27 (UNI) The 90-year-old state-owned Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited (KSDL), manufacturers of the world famous Mysore Sandal Soap and Sandalwood oil, is facing acute shortage of sandalwood supply.

Talking to UNI, KSDL Managing Director I R Perumal said the forest department was not in a position to meet its demand. Till 2001, it had been supplying the required sandalwood to the company at the administrative price of Rs 8.5 lakh per tonne. But after that the supply had gone down and it had completely stopped in the last 18 months.

He said this had forced the company to look to other states for sandalwood and raise it in public auction in Tamil Nadu and Kerala at an average price of Rs 35 lakh per tonne.

Mr Perumal said to meet the demand and avoid paying prohibitive cost for procuring sandalwood, the company had embarked upon a novel scheme 'Grow More Sandalwood' under which it was supplying sandalwood saplings to farmers and private land owners. It had so far distributed over two lakh saplings to farmers not only in Karnataka, but also neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

He informed that the KSDL had recently signed an agreement with the Mysore Paper Mills (MPM) to lease over 300 acres of its forest land to raise sandalwood trees. The company would maintain the sandalwood plantation for its requirement and bear the cultivation cost.

Mr Perumal said the KSDL had sent a proposal to the state government seeking allotment of 5000 acres of forest land in Shimoga, Chamarajanagar, Hassan and Chikmagalur districts to raise sandalwood trees.

Stating that the company had evolved plans to diversify its activities, he said it would be establishing a packaged drinking water plant at Shimoga where it owned land on the banks of river Tunga. It had also submitted a plan for Rs 30 crore to start its own packaging manufacturing unit to meet its requirements.

He said that though the company had the capacity to manufacture 26,000 metric tonnes of soaps and detergents, it was producing only 6,000 to 8,000 mt due to shortage of sandalwood. Hence it was planning to lease out its plant capacity to private operators and many private firms, including Godrej, had evinced interest.

The KSDL also wanted to construct buildings for commercial purposes on the land it owned in a prime area in the city to achieve self-sufficiency, he added.

UNI MV RG GM1624