After a lull of over a month due to the existing health emergency, efforts are on to begin the much-awaited collection of tendu leaves in the Rampa Agency this week.
On May 5, the Forest Department conducted the auction of the 11 tendu leaf units geographically located in East Godavari (nine) and West Godavari (two) districts under the aegis of the Additional PCCF (Production) R.K. Suman in Chintoor. As many as 11 contractors have won the bid and all of them belong to Telangana.
Chintoor Divisional Forest Officer V. Saibaba told The Hindu that a target has been set for collection of the 19,300 Standard Bags (SB) of leaves during the 2020 season. A single SB consists of 1,000 bundles and 50 leaves make a single bundle. The leaf collection, normally done in the months of April and May, provides employment to 13,000 to 15,000 tribal people mandals under the Tendu Leaf Scheme in six submergence mandals in the Rampa Agency, he added.
The highest royalty of ₹5,229 per SB has been offered for the leaf in the Kunavaram Range this season.
Destination W. Bengal
The leaf collectors are being offered ₹2,000 for the one SB. The Forest Department offers the bonus to the collectors from the royalty earned from the tendu units.
B.L. Sampath Reddy, the Warangal-based contractor, who won the bid of one unit, said; “A majority of the contractors are prepareing to begin collection this week as the ideal time to collect the leaf is elapsing. Above 90 % of the leaf collected from the Andhra Pradesh forests is exported to West Bengal.”