Imphal, Sep 03: Not less than 10 truck loads of pine resins are exported every day to Nagaland from Kharasom and Jessami villages of Ukhrul district.

These villages lying at the border of Manipur are also the ones where pines are most abundantly grown.

It is reported that police and Forest Department officials of Jessami check post charge Rs 400/500 per truck load of resin exported to Nagaland.

Ten years back, huge beams of pine trees were exported to Nagaland in large numbers of truck loads.

But people had given up the timber trade following prohibition of the large scale export by one UG group, informed a villager of Jessami while talking to reporters visiting the village.

The road from Ukhrul to Jessami is approximately 97/98 kms.

Along this route from Kharasom village to Jessami large piles of pine resin were seen in every courtyard and the roadside.

During a brief halt at Kharasom village, the villagers told reporters that the pine resins were not for home use but for export to Dimapur.

They also disclosed that this trade was the principal livelihood of the villagers.

The resins were prepared from dead pine trees or from old pine trees which have been cut down a long time before in the deep jungles.

To prepare such resins the barks of the trimmed trees should be removed, disclosed a villager.

To collect a truck load of resin by six persons from jungles, it takes about 6/7 days, he added.

Informing that 13/14 tonnes can be loaded on a truck, the villagers said that they pile up the prepared resins at spots where trucks can drive in.

As for Jessami village, there are about 4/5 businessmen who send pine resins to Dimapur.

They further disclosed that these businessmen pay Rs 3 per kg to the villagers while they sell it to Marwari business men at Dimapur at the rate of Rs 6/7 per kg.

Stating that the population of Jessami might have reached 3000 after the population of the village was recorded at 2700 according to the 2001 census, one Peimi Wezah said that for the 320 families of the village the main source of income for these families is the resin trade.

Even though the distance from Jessami to Imphal and Jessami to Dimapur are 206 kms each, the Jessami villagers prefer Dimapur to trade their products on account of the greater opportunities for trading and better road conditions.

Jessami alone supply not less than 10 truck loads of resin every week to the resin traders.

For every truck load of resin exported to Dimapur, the villagers who collect the resins from jungles get about Rs 40,000/45,000 while the business men sell the same quantity at Dimapur at Rs 90,000.Even as the villagers are aware of the great demand of pine resin in Dimapur particularly by Marwari business men, they are totally in dark regarding the utilization of the resins.

The local traders were also not aware of the utilization.

They said that the Marwari traders just took away the resins by railways.

Totally unconcerned with the large scale export, the Forest check post and police of Jessami did not say any word against the export if they were given Rs 400/500 per truck load.

The Excise personnel too turned their eyes away from the trade when they were given Rs 100 for every truck load of resin, informed the villagers.

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