The Ram Temple in Ayodhya, slated to be a unique architectural and engineering wonder, will bear the imprint of the dense Dandakaranya forests, where the Lord spent time during his exile. The entire timber for the temple’s ‘Maha Dwar’ (main gate), 118 other wooden gates, idols and animals carved on artefacts has been sourced from the verdant sweep of Allapalli in Gadchiroli district of east Maharashtra, now infamous for Maoists and its booby-trapped hinterland. The Ram Mandir Tirtha Kshetra Trust procured the entire teakwood stock to embellish the temple from Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (FDCM), a state-owned corporation engaged in commercial extraction of high-quality timber and bamboo. Earlier, the corporation supplied teakwood to the Central Vista Project in Delhi, DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai, and Satara Sainik School. Talking to TOI, FDCM managing director Vikas Gupta said, “The Ram temple Trust learned about FDCM from Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, wh
The same wood is also being used extensively for the Central Vista project, and the construction of the Archeological Survey of India. News18 explains why: