An official press release said here today that the Chief Minister M Karunanidhi in his letter had pointed out that the State alone was suffering a loss of Rs 100 crore annually because of the ban. Nearly 6,000 tonnes of high quality sandalwood remained stagnant in the godowns of the State Forest Department because of the ban imposed in 1992. "A false propaganda was also going on in foreign markets that high quality indian sandalwood will not come to the market hereafter. Only poor quality sandalwood from Indonesia and Australia are now being sold in foreign countries," the CM said. If the ban was not lifted, the existing stock in TN would decay in course of time, he said.

The release said the C M had written a similar letter to the then PM Deve Gowda, butthe Centre had not acted upon the suggestion.