MUMBAI, DECEMBER 4: Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim is diversifying. From smuggling and real estate to extortion and narcotics, he's now moving into another multi-crore business: gutkha.Police and intelligence agencies who have been tracking Dawood's forays into the estimated Rs 1,500 crore gutkha industry, have reason to believe that the don recently acquired a 50 per cent stake in a leading Indian gutkha company and is also likely to launch a new brand of gutkha, Fire, in Pakistan soon.Dawood Ibrahim entered the scene after two prominent Indian gutkha manufacturers took a dispute of payments worth Rs 15 crore to him for settlement late last year. The two were in Karachi the day Dawood's mother died in Mumbai. Dawood Ibrahim evinced interest in starting a joint venture with the manufacturers in whose favour he settled the dispute.Sources in the intelligence agencies said the gutkha business would yield profits of around Rs 25 crore per month, which Dawood is then expected to funnel into his drug trade with Afghanistan.Interestingly, the direct impact of the Karachi gang's entry into the enormous gutkha market is being felt in the Khair forests in Thane district of Maharashtra. Illegal tree felling in the area has increased due to the protection provided through organised crime.Vital to the manufacturing of gutkha is the pulp of the Khair tree. Logs are crushed to make catechur, one of the main ingredients, with beetlenut powder, lime and tobacco.And the best quality Khair trees are found in the forests of Thane where illegal felling has increased of late. Just a week ago, on November 27, armed members of an underworld outfit beat up two forest guards before escaping with huge truckloads of Khair trees.Conservator of Forest (Thane Territorial) A K Jha said the problem has assumed serious proportions after the Khair smugglers started getting support from armed gangs. ``Some of the best quality Khair needed for manufacturing of gutkha is found only in Thane. Which is why the gangs are active in the area,''said Jha.At least two truckloads of Khair tree are felled each day in Thane district and transported to meet the needs of the manufacturers.Senior police officials say the smuggled consignment is sometimes hauled to some laboratories near Billad and Umergaon in Gujarat, bordering Thane district. There the coagulated juice from the Khair pulp is mixed with chemicals to form synthetic intoxicants. The finished product is almost as potent as brown sugar.Forest officials estimate that the monetary value of a truckload of Khair tree at over Rs 15,000 in the black market. But once it is made into pulp and the juice extracted, its price multiplies manifold. And for the gangs, that's a sound investment.
