How Our Best Intentions Went Up in Smoke

Even worse, the tobacco-curing kilns' demand for firewood is causing deforestation. Because the farmers have no wood on their own plots of land, they typically purchase firewood from agents who do illegal logging in the local wildlife sanctuary, the Rajiv Gandhi National Park (Nagarahole), which is home to the Asian elephant and tiger. [...] those who have licenses are considered well-off In fact, economic status and tobacco are so deeply entwined in rural south India that the first thing a boy's parents will ask if they are trying to arrange a marriage for their son is whether his intended's parents have a tobacco license.