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Lac is a natural resin secreted by an insect (Cerria lacca). This insect thrives on babool, bargad, pipal, kusum, and palash. The important products produced with the help of lac as a raw material are adhesives, electrical insulators, gramophones records, nail-polish, and printing ink.
This cottage industry is concentrated in the districts of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, J harkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
India is the third most important lac producing country in the world after Thailand and Malaysia. About 85 per cent of the total production of lac is exported to France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, UAE, UK, and USA.