V G Siddhartha has taken 1.85 million hectares of Amazonian forestland on a 30-year lease from the Republic of Guyana in South America to start a furniture Business in India. The idea is to transport cut logs on chartered ships from the Guyanese capital Georgetown to the Mangalore Port and then carry them via road to the Coffee Day Group’s furniture plant in Chikmagalur. The Amazonian hard wood varieties coming to Indian shores through this route will include Greenheart, Purpleheart, Wallaba and Bullet Wood. The royalty that Siddhartha will pay the Guyanese government is not clear. Siddhartha declined to comment on the matter. A couple of years ago, the Coffee Day Group had started a furniture unit to capitalize on the huge depository of full-grown silver oak, teak wood, rose wood and mahogany trees grown in its 15,000-acres of coffee gardens in Chikmagalur. The unit designs multi-purpose furniture for home, kitchen, office, hotels and Retail outlets. It also manufactures all kinds of plywood, wood boards, panel sheets and beadings, making use of the wood waste and saw powder. But it has so far remained mostly as a captive unit, serving the requirements of the Group’s coffee outlets and the resorts under the brand name Serai.