Frequently asked questions

The scientific name of chandan, the white sandalwood or safed chandan, is Santalum album L., of the sandalwood family Santalaceae. Red sandalwood, or lal chandan, is a different tree: its scientific name is Pterocarpus santalinus L.f., of the pea family Fabaceae. In English, chandan is called sandalwood, Indian sandalwood or East Indian sandalwood.

Chandan grows mainly in the dry parts of peninsular India: ICFRE-IWST says more than 90% of India's sandalwood area is in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In Rajasthan it grows wild only in the Aravalli hills of the south and east, from Sirohi to Pratapgarh, and farmers in many districts have planted it with irrigation and host plants, though the total area was still small, about 100 ha (ICFRE, Wood is Good 2021). For a sapling, ask your state forest department or a reputable nursery about the seed source, and never dig up wild seedlings.

Plant a container-grown seedling, ideally 30-50 cm tall with its small nursery host still beside it (ICFRE-IWST), at the start of the monsoon in a sunny, well-drained spot. A pit about 50 cm each way is a rule of thumb; refill it with the dug soil mixed with well-rotted compost and plant at the depth the seedling stood in its container. Plant a long-term host such as ber, amla, karanj or khejri in the same pit or about 1-2 m away (our rule of thumb), put up a guard, and water only when the soil a few centimetres down is drying. For spacing, ICFRE-IWST uses 4 × 4 m in plantations; that is only a rough starting point, not a safe distance from a house, wall or borewell, so ask your local forest or horticulture office. Growing from seed is harder: ICFRE-IWST sows 4-5 seeds at the base of a bush, which then acts as the host.

With the monsoon, once the rain has properly wetted the soil. As a guide, that is usually July or August in Rajasthan, Gujarat and central India, and June or July in the southern peninsula, but go by when the rains actually arrive in your district. Avoid the hot, dry months of April to June, and do not plant in winter where there is frost.

Chandan needs a host because it is a hemi-parasite: its roots join the roots of nearby plants and take water and nutrients from them, and ICFRE-IWST says a seedling without a lasting host becomes stunted and usually dies within about a year. Use a small nursery host such as arhar or touch-me-not at first, then a long-lived host. ICFRE scientists report ber, kumat, babool, khejri, amla and casuarina doing well as hosts in Rajasthan, and ICFRE-IWST also lists karanj, Malabar neem and kassod. Keep the host pruned so that it never shades the sandalwood.

Chandan often flowers twice a year, in March-April and September-October, and ICFRE-IWST says trees start flowering from about 3 years of age; an article in ICFRE-IWST's Wood is Good (2021) gives first flowering at 3-5 years and full flowering and fruiting at 5-8 years, depending on the place and care. The fruits are small, round and purple-black when ripe. Growth is slow: the scented heartwood usually starts forming at about 10-13 years (ICFRE-IWST).

Chandan is an evergreen tree with slender, drooping twigs and thin, oval leaves in opposite pairs, roughly 3-8 cm long (ICRAF). Its flowers are tiny, roughly 4-6 mm, in small clusters, straw-coloured to red or purplish-brown, and its round fruits, roughly 1 cm across, ripen purple-black. Old trees have dark, rough bark with deep vertical cracks. Red sandalwood (lal chandan) looks different: it has compound leaves of usually three leaflets, yellow flowers and round, winged pods (Vikaspedia).

Only for a short time, as general guidance: nurseries raise young sandalwood in small containers with a pot host, but chandan grows into a tree of up to about 20 m (ICFRE-IWST) and needs a living host all its life, so a pot cannot hold it for long. If you keep a young plant in a large pot for a season, grow a small host such as arhar in the same pot and plant both in the ground with the next monsoon. We found no source on growing sandalwood long-term in a pot.

There is no fixed price for a chandan tree. ICFRE-IWST's undated technology package quoted heartwood at Rs 3,500-5,000 per kg in India at that time, while an auction of illegally cut wood by the Gujarat Medicinal Plants Board averaged Rs 1,039 per kg over 2015-2020 (Wood is Good, 2021). What a tree is worth depends on its heartwood and oil, which take more than a decade to form, and on selling it legally under your state's rules, so treat any per-tree earnings figure as a projection, not a promise. Sapling prices vary by nursery and seed source.

We found no scientific study showing that snakes are drawn to sandalwood trees; the idea is an old belief, famous from Rahim's doha about snakes coiling around the sandalwood tree. Like any tree with shade and cover, a sandalwood can shelter a snake now and then, so take normal care when working around it (general guidance). Toxicity is not well documented: we found no curated data on whether any part harms people or pets, so do not eat any part, keep children and pets away from it and from sandalwood oil, and see a doctor, or a vet for a pet, if anyone swallows some and feels unwell.