The farmers of Periyapatna, H D Kote, K R Nagar taluks can be seen waiting like hawks on the roadsides to purchase these wood without which the processing of the tobacco yield is not possible.
It is also a festival time for middlemen who utilise this opportunity to make some quick bucks by bringing dried wood from various parts and sell it for a good price.
Not only wood, even the roots of the dried eucalyptus and survey trees are also much sought after. Earlier, the farmers were demanding for quality wood but, with those cultivating tobacco has seen a manifold increase, they have no other option but to pay the price demanded by the traders.
Hundreds of lorries from Mandya and Kolar districts reach Hunsur every day and a truck load of wood is sold for not less than Rs 20,000.
Though there is a claim that there is a seepage of revenue, the farmers say that the wood is not brought from the forest area but it is dried twigs and branches from their own lands and there is no question of paying any tax.
As the agents realise that without wood there is no tobacco cultivation, they are having a field day by fixing prices as per their whims and fancies and are indirectly pushing the farmers into debt trap. The agricultural marketing and forest department are mum saying that it does not come under their limits.
But it is the farmers who are feeling the heat and the questions that haunt them are, to which department does the sale come under, who is to fix the price for the loads and who are going to free the farmers from the wood mafia?
Whatever the problem the wood is being sold like hot cakes and it is the middlemen who are laughing all the way to the bank.