Tamarind Trees

The road from Coimbatore to Kotagiri (see Kotagiri Landscape and Kotagiri Tea Estates) is lined with large tamarind trees (Tamarindus indica L.). Each of the trees has a number and two white bands painted on the trunk. This, I was told, is part of a government concession system in which local people can harvest the tamarind fruits, but only from designated groups of trees in certain years.  I wonder who is in charge of the tree painting?