High Demand in India Intensifies Timber Smuggling From Myanmar |
The Pulse | Economy | South Asia
High Demand in India Intensifies Timber Smuggling From Myanmar
Timber worth a whopping $40 million is smuggled from Myanmar to India annually. This is a conservative estimate.
An illegal saw mill at Tamu in Myanmar’s Sagaing Region.
Timber smuggling from Myanmar to India has escalated with long-term adverse consequences for the region, which is among the top ten biodiversity hotspots.
A conservative estimate of the volume and value of illegally imported timber from Myanmar stands at a whopping $40 million annually. The items smuggled are primarily teak, gurjan, Burmese lacquer and white teak — all of which are in high demand in India.
Large-scale import of timber from Myanmar’s Sagaing Region and Chin State into India through multiple routes in the Indian border state of Manipur is facilitated by an interplay of many factors, such as poverty, weak governance, involvement of local communities and rebel groups, and the connivance of government officials on both sides of the India-Myanmar border.
These conclusions were part of a research paper titled “Cross-border illegal logging and timber trade in the Indian state of Manipur, and Myanmar: causes, actors, routes and volumes” by H. Isworchandra Sharma and L. Thoudam, which was published in the International Forestry Review.
The study examined the nature of illegal logging and the timber trade along the international border in the Indian border states of Manipur and Myanmar, delineating the causes, actors, volumes and value, and the routes of the timber trade. The findings were based on extensive fieldwork in the border zones, including interviews with loggers, traders, drivers, village chiefs and government officials.
The researchers identified the increasing demand for timber products from the growing population and timber-based industries in India as among the main factors spurring the trade. The demand received a further boost after Myanmar imposed a ban on timber exports in 2014. Incidentally, in 2007, the Indian government allowed timber to be imported from Myanmar.
The paper noted that the ban impacted Indian traders and firms producing plywood and veneer and led to processing factories being established in Myanmar. The search for ways to meet their raw material requirement from Myanmar led to “the........