Indian Interrogators Confounded by Language Barrier

Police in Chittoor, near Hyderabad have been interrogating Yang Ping, a Chinese buyer of red sanders for five days, but have been unable to get any valuable information from him. Reasons given were that either the Chinese man did not understand the questions thrown at him or the interrogators did not understand the answers that he gave. The only thing that they could glean from all their conversation was that Yang Ping said that he was Chinese and therefore a foreigner and the Indian police would not be able to punish him.

Yang Ping is being held for questioning in relation to the smuggling of red sanders from the Seshachalam forests. Red sanders or red sandalwood is endemic to South India. It is highly valued for the natural rich red color of its wood. Historically, China places a high value for red sanders, which in Chinese is called “zitan.” The tree grows quite slowly and its rarity is what makes furniture made from red sanders expensive and difficult to find. It is one of the much-sought after woods for several millenniums.

The Chittoor police had put together a task force to crack down on the smuggling of red sanders and Yang Ping was caught on May 7 around Hyderabad. They received custody of him last week and is now in jail in Chittoor.

His jail time is about to end therefore the interrogators are getting agitated. One of the investigators assigned to the case said in an interview that language barrier was preventing them from fully interrogating Yang. The officer said that they had to resort to using an English-Chinese translation software to advance their interrogation but they were only able to get less than 70 percent result.

Tracking Yang’s travels together with other smugglers of red sanders, they have learnt that they have been to Bengaluru, Kolkata, New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. The extent of their travels gave the investigators an inkling on the scope of the smuggling operation. For his part, Yang Ping admitted that he was a buyer of red sanders, but denied that he was involved in any smuggling operation.

From what they were able to gather from Yang and Srinivasa Raju of Rayachoti, believed to be his accomplice, they have been to a red sanders dump in Bengaluru days before they were arrested. Yang continues to deny that he knew the dump site. However, the police took note of his thorough knowledge of the Seshachalam hills’ topography. Police are trying to verify whether his knowledge of the area came from books or due to the fact that he personally visited the area.

Due to its rarity, the high demand and the high price China pays for red sanders, it has become a very lucrative and prosperous market for smugglers. Indian police have made a number of arrests each year, all of them trying to smuggle red sanders to China.

Image credit: Red sandalwood, by Bhaskaranaidu under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.