The tussar silk trade in Orissa, which sustains some 50,000 rearers and about 300,000 members of their families, has fallen on had days. Smugglers and black marketeers have done serious harm to tribal rearers and the trade. Faulty government policy and poor procurement prices are cited as the reasons that the smugglers are thriving, pushing tribals who depend solely on the tussar trade to look to other sources of income.