Tamil Nadu Proposes Easing Rosewood Tree Felling Rules, Conservationists Alarmed

More than a year after the Tamil Nadu Rosewood Trees (Conservation) Act lapsed, the TN govt has neither disclosed whether its promise of encouraging rosewood cultivation has led to new plantations nor responded to the Union environment ministry’s call to review the decision.

With no official assessment of the state’s rosewood population, no data on new plantations, and allegations of increasing felling of mature trees on private estates, conservationists question whether the lapse of the Act has encouraged cultivation or accelerated the species’ decline.An RTI application dated July 9, 2025, seeking data on the number of applications for permission to fell rosewood trees in the Nilgiris district has yet to receive a reply.

Meanwhile, TOI has found that several private estates in Kilkotagiri, Kotagiri taluk, have numbered the rosewood trees on their properties. Sources allege that the forest department has completed the enumeration ahead of possible felling.“A few private estates in the Nilgiris sought permission to fell rosewood trees. But no permission has been granted yet as it is difficult to prove the trees were planted. Naturally grown rosewood trees remain protected from being felled,” says a forest official requesting anonymity.

However, the official was reluctant to disclose the number of trees mentioned in the applications.“Nobody sought permission to fell rosewood trees in the past year, and no permission has been granted for cutting since the lapse of the Rosewood Act. Only the fallen trees were permitted to be removed,” says Srinivas R Reddy, principal chief conservator of forests and head of forest force, Tamil Nadu.Reddy says the forest department has no data on how many farmers have cultivated rosewood trees since the act was repealed.

“It was meant to encourage cultivation. We don’t have data on the population of rosewood trees in the state.”Conservationists say this lack of data is worrying given the tree’s slow regeneration. Environmental activist B J Krishnan says only a few hundred trees are left in the Nilgiris. “The tree is endemic to the Nilgiris region of the Western Ghats. It takes a hundred years for a tree to mature. Artificial regeneration of rosewood is difficult because of low seed germination rates under natural conditions and its slower growth compared to other indigenous trees in the Nilgiris.

This has contributed to the decline of the species even in forested areas,” says the former member of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel.In 1994, when the Tamil Nadu govt considered allowing rosewood trees to be felled, the Save Nilgiris Campaign, the Church of South India and local students launched a strong opposition, sparking public outcry. This led Godhavarman Tirumalpad, a stakeholder in the Gudalur Jenmam lands, to challenge the decision in Supreme Court.“Due to the high value of rosewood trees, many people, especially estate owners, are eager to sell them,” says Priya Davidar, a member of the National Board of Wildlife. “There has been illegal logging and selling of rosewood trees, which authorities seem to ignore.”When the TN Rosewood (Conservation) Act was annulled in June 2025, forest department officials explained that the objectives of the act are not fully realised because other regulations, such as the Tamil Nadu Preservation of Private Forest Act of 1949 and the Tamil Nadu Hill Areas (Preservation of Trees) Act of 1955, protect rosewood trees.

Since felling is permitted on private lands governed by these laws, officials say enforcing the two Acts would be sufficient to protect the species.TOI has learned that, acting on a petition about the felling of rosewood trees in Tamil Nadu, the Union environment ministry’s Forest Protection Division wrote to the state’s head of forest force on June 3, asking that the issue be examined and appropriate action taken under existing Acts, rules and regulations.

It also sought an action-taken report at the earliest.A PIL pending before Madras high court seeks to quash the 2025 govt order which allowed the Rosewood Conservation Act to lapse, and extend the validity of the TN Rosewood Trees (Conservation) Act, 1994, and its 1995 rules. The 1994 act prohibited the cutting, transport, sale and possession of rosewood.The forest department has proposed amendments to the Tamil Nadu Preservation of Private Forest Act, 1949, and the Tamil Nadu Hill Areas (Preservation of Trees) Act, 1955, to ease restrictions on the felling of rosewood and sandalwood trees.

Coming in the wake of the lapse of the Rosewood Conservation Act, the move has environmentalists worried.Reddy says the department has “not received any such communication”. “We have proposed a few amendments to the Tamil Nadu Preservation of Private Forest Act of 1949 and the Tamil Nadu Hill Areas (Preservation of Trees) Act of 1955, which address rosewood and sandalwood as well as the removal of teakwood trees from royal tree status in the former Travancore territory in Kanyakumari and certain taluks in the Tirunelveli district.

We aim to liberalise regulations prohibiting the felling of rosewood and sandalwood trees. The proposed amendment is under review.”Krishnan says the TN govt allowed the Rosewood Conservation Act to lapse under pressure from the tree-felling lobby. “The decision is being challenged in Madras high court. Even as the case is pending, the govt is considering amendments to the Tamil Nadu Preservation of Private Forest Act, 1949, and the Tamil Nadu Hill Areas (Preservation of Trees) Act, 1955.”The proposal, says Krishnan, is aimed at helping the tree-felling lobby cut down the few remaining rosewood trees in the Nilgiris. “Once these trees are gone, the species could vanish. This is an ecologically retrograde step. The govt should drop the proposed amendments and revive the moratorium on felling rosewood trees in the Nilgiris.”Once upon a treeRosewood (Dalbergia latifolia) lost three decades of special legal protection when the Tamil Nadu Rosewood Trees (Conservation) Act, 1994, lapsed in 2025. Introduced in 1995, the first-of-its-kind law in the country was enacted for 15 years under then chief minister J Jayalalithaa and extended for another 15 years in 2010 under M Karunanidhi