Hazaribagh, July 14: The forest department has stepped up vigil for precious sandalwood trees, especially those located on official premises, across seven districts of North Chotanagpur region in the wake of increasing incidents of felling and theft.
Chief conservator of forests, North Chotanagpur range, Mahendra Prasad last week wrote to officials of Hazaribagh, Chatra, Koderma, Ramgarh, Giridih, Dhanbad and Bokaro, asking them to carry out a survey to identify sandal trees at forest department offices and residential quarters at the earliest. Interestingly, the department currently does not have any data on the number of sandal tree present in Hazaribagh or other districts.
In the directive, issued in the wake of a recent theft attempt on the campus of DFO Rajeev Ranjan's official residence on Lake Road, Hazaribagh, Prasad also asked officials concerned to take all preventive measures to keep thieves at bay.
On July 4, unknown men cut down a sandal tree at Ranjan's residence at night, but they fled leaving the logs behind as the DFO's guards woke up and raised an alarm. Later, an FIR was registered at Sadar police station. Around fifteen days ago, a sandal tree was stolen from Muktidham crematorium near the town.
"There has been regular reports of felling of sandal trees. At first, we plan to secure the trees inside the official premises," Prasad told The Telegraph. He said the department had put up 10-feet iron grilles around three sandal trees at forests offices in Hazaribagh town. "We will also deploy extra guards to protect these trees," he added.
According to sources, there had been a large number of sandal trees across Hazaribagh, but the count has fallen over the years, thanks to rampant felling and a lackadaisical attitude of forest officials.
Since 2011, around three dozens sandalwood trees had been cut down in Hazaribagh town. "As many as eight trees were felled in the town in 2011 alone. Thieves used electronic cutters to cut the trees into small logs and escaped with the expensive yellow wood right under the nose of forest officials," said an official.
He added a single sandalwood tree fetched lakhs of rupees in open markets. "One kg of yellowish heartwood of the sandalwood can fetch anything between Rs 2,000 and Rs 17,000," he added.
