this is one of the most expensive woods
in the world
but it's really one portion of a
sandalwood log that makes it so valuable
to get to it these men tirelessly chop
away the lighter outer layer of sapwood
until they're left with this the dark
inner core that makes a kilogram of
indian sandalwood cost 200 today
this is where sandalwood's unique
fragrance comes from and when it's
distilled it's used in all kinds of
products from bath soaps to luxury brand
perfumes
so what makes sandalwood's aroma so
special
and is that why the wood is so expensive
native to south india centalum album or
indian sandalwood was used for hundreds
of years before becoming a go-to scent
for expensive perfumes
it's also been used for wood carvings
and medicine and it's even considered a
sacred tree in several religions
once distilled sandalwood's sweet woodsy
aroma retains its scent for decades
this is the crude oil portion
this we take separately and it is
weighed
and it is handed over to
stores department
after harvesting the forestry department
sells sandalwood at auction to factories
like this one in mysore
this is a judge pocal class of
sandalwood
we have received from marayun in kerala
this we are going to process
in next week
hollow heartwood logs are classified as
jejpokal one of the 18 classes of indian
sandalwood
factories can purchase pure heartwood
like judge pocal or raw sandalwood logs
but if they buy the raw wood they'll
need to break down each log themselves
although a machine helps split
sandalwood into more manageable pieces
stripping the logs down to their
heartwood core requires the effort of
several employees
it is totally manual process
and a very skilled process
in a physically demanding process these
men chop each log to remove the sapwood
the non-fragrant portion of sandalwood
you can see the brown portion
this is
heartwood the outer portion is called
sapwood and the exterior portion is
barker
pure heartwood is the most valuable
class of sandalwood
in some trees pure heartwood is easier
to extract because it forms in one
circle at the center
in other trees the heartwood mixes
together with sapwood which impacts the
final value of the oil
this brown portion is altered and this
white portion is sap wood
so it is mix of both although
and sapwood that's why it is called
mixed wood so it is a little bit
inferior quality as regard to
sandalwood dial contents
after employees have gathered all they
can a machine breaks down the strips of
wood into chips
employees do a sift through these chips
to grab any leftover pieces of usable
heartwood
then a separate machine turns those
chips into powder
now distillation can begin
process is long and it starts with
injecting steam into distillation stills
after the oil is extracted all that's
left are these giant mounds of powder
but even with most of the oil gone some
of the scent still lingers
rather than going to waste it's used to
make incense sticks and dupe a common
form of incense in india used during
religious rituals
during the final stages workers separate
the oil from water and purify it until
they're left with a totally clean tank
of sandalwood oil
it takes mahadeva's team about a week to
distill one metric ton of oil
tanks of the purified oil are sent to a
lab in bengaluru
here researchers test each batch for
quality
they smell samples of the oil to confirm
the aroma is consistent across batches
sandalwood's unique and long-lasting
scent makes it compatible with a wide
range of other fragrances
which is why it's an ideal base for
perfume
so sun load oil is a woody compound it
is a base compound it longers around
more than 24 hours it is not like that
that orange oil or jasmine lake
after the oil is tested it heads to
another factory where it will be used to
make soap for karnataka soap and
detergents limited or ksdl
okay this is the final finished oil is
the color of the oil that finished
product perfume what we are using for
measures and also fragrance ksdl is one
of the biggest producers of sandalwood
oil products globally
although its primary focus is soap the
company sells bottles of just sandalwood
oil too
one 10 gram bottle of sandalwood oil
costs 5 500 rupees or about 74 dollars
it is very expensive for common people
like
me and you cannot afford to pay a 3000
rupees for a 5 gram of sand line
in every
auction
there used to be increase in the price
of sand load
maybe by 10 20 percent
increase compared to previous prices
so when the sand would price increases
definitely oil prices will also be
increased
to 2017 a kilogram of indian sandalwood
oil can cost double today
and demand isn't slowing down with the
market expected to reach over 165
million dollars by 2027
out of roughly 10 sandalwood species
indian sandalwood and australian
sandalwood have the largest commercial
value the difference is the indian
species has higher levels of alpha and
beta-santolol the components in
sandalwood responsible for its lasting
scent and believed health benefits
india used to dominate the market for
sandalwood oil and oil-based products
but in recent years australia which
grows both the indian and australian
sandalwood species has gained
significant ground in the market
although this might look like a lot of
sandalwood india is actually facing a
supply shortage
in fact the supply is so limited that
this sandalwood distillery only operated
for about four months in 2021
and up until 2002 it was illegal for
private growers to plant sandalwood
trees in the southern states of
karnataka tamil nadu and kerala
with only a small amount of
government-sanctioned replanting
alongside the over-harvesting india's
supply suffered
and since 2018 the species has been
considered vulnerable one level above
endangered
another factor that limits supply and
increases the price is inherent to the
way the tree grows older trees tend to
yield more oil which makes them
preferable for oil production
growers will typically wait around 20
years for a tree to mature
this waiting period doesn't only limit
the quantity of sandalwood it also puts
the trees at risk it's not
the seasonal crop
it is a long lasting
crop it needs very patience to grow and
you need to protect till its maturity
that is the one
issue you have to
bear in mind
today every tree has to be registered
with the government and can't be
harvested or transported without
permission
but even these strict regulations aren't
enough to prevent theft
according to hinduism today roughly 2
000 tons of smuggled sandalwood passed
through the black market in 2018
to successfully grow the trees for
decades farmers must pay the cost to
protect them
here in the city of mysore some trees
are wrapped in barbed wire
on top of this threat harvesting these
trees isn't simple
when a farmer has approval a government
official must come in person to uproot
the entire tree
none of the tree should be wasted
particularly heartwood in the trunk and
roots since it holds the highest oil
content
in the end the tree's total oil output
isn't much
so you may get around 60 grams of
sandalwood out of 1 kg of a root portion
sandalwood
in case of stem
you may get around 40 grams to
50 grams
in branches about 30 grams to 40 grams
to replenish some of its trees the
karnataka state government created the
grow more sandalwood program around 360
farmers are enrolled with our grow more
sandal project and we're encouraging
farmers to grow more grow more and more
sandalwood and after minimum 14 years of
age you can buy back
but growing trees comes with the cost of
protecting them for decades at a time
something that likely will still deter
farmers there are also the permissions
growers need from the government which
slow down the process
it's uncertain if programs like this can
return india to its old production
levels but at a minimum the effort might
help restore some of the country's lost
sandalwood supply
you