First Time In India, Tripura's Agar Oil gets CITES certificate

For the first time ever in India, Tripura Agar Oil has received a special certificate called CITES. This certificate allows Mamon Enterprises from North Tripura to export 2.5 kilograms of Agar Oil to Dubai.

Before this, Tripura got permission from the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change to sell Agar oil to other countries. Tripura is focusing on the overall development of the Agar sector in the state. It’s believed that this sector, known as Liquid Gold, can contribute Rs 2000 crore to the economy and provide jobs for about 50,000 people.

Last October, the state organized a meeting in Agartala for international buyers and sellers specifically for Agar oil and other Agar products.

It’s known that Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a special interest in this matter.

“Earlier, Agar trade was often done in a disorganized and sometimes illegal way, especially in North Tripura district. But now, with full support from the government and other related agencies, the Agar sector, from planting trees to identifying them, branding, marketing, and exporting the final products, is being developed in a highly professional and scientific manner,” explained a senior official from the Tripura Forest department.

Tripura's Agar Oil

Phase I of redeveloped Ayodhya Railway Station – known as Ayodhya Dham Junction Railway Station – is developed at a cost of more than Rs 240 crore. The three-storey modern railway station building is equipped with all modern features like lifts, escalators, food plazas, shops for puja needs, cloak rooms, child care rooms, waiting halls. The station building will be ‘accessible for all’ and ‘IGBC certified green station building’.

TRIPURA AGARWOOD POLICY 2021

The Tripura Agarwood Policy 2021 has a goal to make sure agarwood is used in a way that keeps it available for a long time. The policy looks at everything about agarwood, like growing it, cutting it, processing it, moving it around, and selling it. This policy also wants to increase the number of agarwood farms by two times by the year 2025.

The policy wants to make an annual economy of INR 2,000 crores from agarwood by 2025. They plan to have 2,000 hectares of land with agarwood plants. The Tripura government has found a place in Kadamtala in North Tripura to make a special market just for agarwood. They are also trying to open a center in Agartala where people can trade agarwood.

The objectives of the Tripura Agarwood Policy 2021 are:

a) To ensure sustainable utilization of the agarwood by emphasizing on all the aspects of cultivation, harvesting, processing, transit and trade.

b) To promote trade in agarwood by easing the procedures of procurement, processing and selling of various products, within the country and export subject to the provisions of CITES.

c) To encourage the growers for planting agarwood trees on their farm/private and homestead lands for livelihood generation and better source of income.

d) To promote the agarwood based industries by Ease of Doing Business and providing proper market linkages.

e) To encourage the research and development in the field of artificial inoculation for agarwood formation, sustainable harvesting and improvement in the quantity and quality of products, development of quality planting material, agro-forestry model, establishment of germplasm and gene bank etc.

f) To set up agar trade centre for buyer-seller meet on agar products.

g) To establish agar product testing laboratory preferably in private sector for quality testing of such products.

h) To train and to build capacity of local youth in plantation and nursery techniques, artificial inoculation of agarwood, agarwood extraction and processing; and marketing of agarwood products.

i) To encourage community participation by having popular campaign “ghar-ghar agar, har ghar agar” through the involvement of Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) /Bio-diversity Management Committee (BMC)/ Self Help Groups (SHGs)/agar growers companies/ farmer producer organizations etc in plantation of agar trees and also in processing and marketing of agar based products.

j) To streamline registration of existing and new agarwood processing units under the provisions of the Tripura Wood Based Industries (Establishment and Regulation) Rules, 2006 to ensure forward and backward market linkages.

What is the state tree of Tripura?

The state tree of Tripura, known as agarwood or Aquilaria malaccensis, is a sizable evergreen tree with initially light brown, hairy bark that turns into smooth, white bark as it matures.

About Agarwood (Aquilaria malaccensis)

Agarwood, scientifically known as Aquilaria malaccensis, is an evergreen tree that thrives in various regions including Bangladesh, Bhutan, northeast India, Sumatra, Kalimantan islands of Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Luzon Philippines, Singapore, and southern Thailand. In India, it can be found in the North Eastern states such as Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and northern West Bengal. Additionally, Agarwood is discovered in some southern Indian states like Karnataka, Kerala, and Goa. Recognized as a valuable floral resource in North East India, Agarwood has been acknowledged for its potential as an aromatic plant.

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