Green activists irked at increasing cases of sandalwood smuggling
Sindhu Lokanath and Neenasam Satish (Photo: DC archives)
Coimbatore:As sandalwood smugglers chopped away two sandalwood trees in VOC park at the heart of Coimbatore on Tuesday night, another gang tried to cut down sandalwood trees on the sprawling campus of Bharathiar University at Maruthamalai on the city outskirts.
However, the attempt to axe the sandalwood trees at the University campus on Tuesday night was thwarted as the alert security guard raised an alarm. The gang fled the scene without cutting the trees, Forest department officials said.
Amid a spate of sandalwood smuggling in Coimbatore, the district forest officer has called for a joint meeting of officials of the corporation, police and other departments concerned to evolve a joint strategy to save the sandalwood trees dotting the city and its outskirts.
“The fully grown sandalwood trees should be first counted and removed,” the DFO, K.Senthil Kumar told the Deccan Chronicle. Meanwhile, green activists are irked at the increasing cases of sandalwood smuggling in Coimbatore. The police have to nab the smugglers and find out if the chopped trees are finding their way to the sandal oil factories in Kerala.
“Sandalwood tree smuggling is on the rise in Coimbatore. Police should zero in on the network of smugglers soon. Since Kerala has many Sandalwood oil factories, the police should find if the sandalwood smuggled from Coimbatore are being sold there,” said K Mohanraj of Tamil Nadu Green Movement.
As for the chopping of sandal wood trees at the VOC park in Coimbatore, green activists are raising questions as to why the Coimbatore corporation had not fixed the CCTV cameras at park. “The police have to take stringent action against the smugglers and stop the theft of sandalwood trees,” said environmental activist M Yoganathan.
In the last two years, at least six cases of sandalwood smuggling has been reported in the city and its suburbs.
( Source : dc )
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