Where chandan grows in India

Sandalwood grows best in the drier tropical parts of peninsular India, and ICFRE-IWST's Sandalwood Information System says more than 90% of India's sandalwood area lies in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. ICRAF names Karnataka and the neighbouring districts of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh as the main sandal tracts, mostly in dry deciduous and scrub forest.

Where it first came from is debated. Kew's World Checklist (read via GBIF) gives its native range as Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands, the Philippines and northern Australia, and records it as introduced in India, while ICRAF and Indian forestry writers describe it as indigenous to peninsular India.

ICFRE-IWST describes its habitat as dry forest from the coast up to 700 m, with temperatures from 0 °C to 38 °C and 500 to 3,000 mm of rain a year, usually on sandy or stony red soils. ICRAF adds that it does not tolerate frost or waterlogging and is not found on black soil.

Chandan in Rajasthan

In Rajasthan, sandalwood grows wild only in the south and east, mainly in the Aravalli hills from Sirohi to Pratapgarh, according to ICFRE scientists in Jodhpur (Wood is Good, 2021). The same ICFRE article reports farm plantings in districts such as Pali, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Barmer, Nagaur, Sikar, Jaipur, Alwar and Ganganagar, with hosts such as amla, ber and babool, but a small total area, about 100 ha. The ICFRE authors see the best potential where rain is about 500–800 mm and irrigation is available.

How it suits each part of India:

• Grows well (our assessment, based on ICRAF and ICFRE-IWST): the dry, red-soil country of the southern peninsula and the Deccan, and central India.
• With care (our assessment): semi-arid Gujarat, Rajasthan and other dry northern plains, with irrigation, a long-term host and frost cover while young.
• Not suitable (our assessment): low land where water stands, black cotton soil and places with hard frost.

How to recognise chandan

Chandan is easiest to recognise by its simple leaves in opposite pairs and its small, berry-like fruits that turn purple-black when ripe (ICRAF).

• Leaves: thin, oval to elliptic, roughly 3–8 cm long, shiny green above and paler beneath.
• Flowers: tiny, roughly 4–6 mm long, in small clusters; straw-coloured or green to red, violet or purplish-brown, and unscented.
• Fruit: round and fleshy, roughly 1 cm across, ripening purple-black, with one hard seed.
• Bark and shape: dark brown to almost black bark, smooth when young and deeply cracked on old trees; slender, drooping twigs.
• Look-alike: red sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus) has compound leaves of usually three leaflets, yellow flowers and round, winged pods (Vikaspedia). It grows naturally only in a distinct tract of forest in Andhra Pradesh and is Endangered (IUCN Red List global assessment, 2021, as reported by Down To Earth).