New Delhi, December 1996. It was a body blow for Rajendra Chamaria. In December, the Supreme Court imposed a blanket ban on cutting of trees in Northeast India. Chamaria, whose forefathers migrated from Rajasthan to Assam over one-and-a-half century ago, had built a sizeable timber empire in the Northeast. After a partition in the family business, Chamaria’s father relocated to a remote corner of Arunachal Pradesh in 1971, and started rebuilding the timber business. “There was no electricity, no school, and zero infrastructure,” recalls Chamaria, who completed his graduation from Assam in 1979 and joined his father. “He started from zero,” he underlines.
(This story appears in the 07 October, 2022 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)