The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has now reclassified red sander as ‘near threatened’ from the earlier ‘endangered’.
After being classified as ‘endangered’ in 1997 and added to the Red List, this is the first time that red sanders have been shifted to a better-conserved category.
Red sanders wood fetches huge prices in the international market for its use in making luxury products, musical instruments and medicine.
However, as the species is endemic to India and had been considered endangered, the Foreign Trade Policy of India doesn’t allow its export.
This ban, coupled with its high demand, made an illegal trade of red sanders rampant in states where it is found like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
