Saharanpur wood sticks cash in on Shimla brand & tourist craze

Attractive and arty wooden sticks made in western Uttar Pradesh sell like hot cakes in far as Shimla, where tourists think it to be local Himalayan wood.

Perhaps the most popular souvenir in this well-known resort town of Himachal Pradesh for holiday makers is the slick wood stick, and other small wooden mementos, which they carry back home from the bustling downtown Lakkar Bazaar in Shimla. The price of these wooden sticks, mostly walking sticks is Rs 20 to Rs 700.

Walking sticks are traditionally essential for every walker in the hills, particularly in the slippery snow and icy paths in the bitter winter across the state.

But the trend by traders in "Lakkar Bazaar" here in recent years has been to procure these wooden sticks and other small wooden items from Saharanpur and Bijnore, the well-known furniture centres of Uttar Pradesh which have abundant artisans(or carpenters).

According to one estimate over 90 per cent of these wooden sticks are brought in from from Uttar Pradesh, say local traders.

"There is no local raw material now as the state government has placed a ban on cutting down trees in forests particularly top quality wood like deodar, pine, oak and the local 'rehosh' which is the best for making walking sticks," explained local trader Lakhwinder Singh.

"Also unlike earlier there are hardly any artisans available to make these artistic sticks," Singh added.

But the demand for these sticks continues so the traders have no choice but to obtain these items from the plains where the demand for these sticks is less.

"But the wood used to make these sticks in the plains is ordinary like 'saal' and sagwan' which cannot compete with the high quality and strength of Himalayan tree species," said another trader.

This leaves the consumers, who are almost entirely tourists with a raw deal. In spite of paying several times more than the wood stick price in the plains they are not able to buy local wood but only end up buying ordinary wood sticks.