Two, 8-year old sandalwood trees were reduced to stumps and stolen from the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Bengaluru campus in Mallathahalli according to a media report in The New Indian Express. An FIR was lodged, after which the officials of the forest department seized the remaining logs and took them into their custody.
A forest department official told, “Girth of the tree was good and hardwood was also formed, because of which theft happened. Some of the logs have been stolen by the thieves. What is remaining has been recovered. Looking at the size of the campus, the SAI should deploy more security personnel as it is private land. The is already a lot of pressure on forest officials, but now, in the wake of increasing number of incidents, the state government should consider giving permission to do a sandalwood tree census in the city and state. A proper count and location can be known and maintained through this.”(sic)
Such an incident has been recorded in the campus for the first time. Assistant Director of SAI S Ravi said that the campus is spread across 81 acres and is well-fenced. Some of the mature sandalwood trees also have tree guards appointed.
A similar incident was reported a few days ago at the Atomic Energy Centre. However, the thieves were not successful in their endeavour and had to abort midway.
Published 03 December 2019, 07:14 IST