Red sandalwood is native and endemic to India. Red sanders is botanically called as Pterocarpus santalinus. It is a moderate deciduous tree which can attain ten to twelve metres height,1.5 to 1.9 metres gird. Its bark resembles crocodile skin and if we cut a portion of it's bark a red coloured blood oozes out .. It is an endemic species restricted to Southern part of eastern ghats in districts of Kadapa,nellur,chittor and Prakasam of Andhra Pradesh and partly in Tamil Nadu state in it's districts of trivarur, kanchipuram, Tiruvannamalai and Rampuri. Red chandan is also found in Sri Lanka and Pakistan due to introduction from India.

Red sanders prefers hot and dry climate,low rainfall of about (500-800)mm annual rainfall. Presently Red sandalwood is categorised as endangered species MAINLY due to it's occurrence in restricted geographical areas in a limited extent it is also in a state of constant decline because of continuous illegal harvesting. It is also been listed in appendix (2) of CITES that is convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora since 1995 as it requires strict regulations on it's trade.

It is in demand because wood is heavy, strong and extremely durable and also highly polishable and suitable for carving thus making it ideal for engraving fine traditional designs in order to make classical luxury furnitures.Straight grained wood is used in making of toys,idols etc .Due to santalin content ,in heartwood it is used as natural dyes in food industries ,pharmaceutical and textile industries and also for flavouring alcoholic beverages.It also has great medicinal properties the heartwood and bark is used in treatment of various ailments like diabetes,cough,skin disease,snake bites and  it's wood powder is used for skin care and cosmetic purposes.Eczema itchiness can be reduced by applying paste of powdered sandalwood mixed with camphor .For all these reasons red sandalwood is traded in international market at a very high price but it is generally exported to China,Japan,Mongolia and western Europe.

Red sandalwood is in great demand in China because they are traditionally connect ed to this .one ton sandalwood can cost upto 2 to 5 crore so value of 1kg of it is rupees 20,000 to 50,000.Red sandalwood is the most smuggled wood in the World .It is estimated that yearly red sandalwood worth of rupees 20,000 crore is smuggled from India. Special task force has been deployed by the government of India to protect red sandalwood from being smuggled.To get the insight of how red sandalwood is smuggled do watch the movie “puspha”.