BERHAMPUR: At least 25 red sandalwood logs worth around Rs 30 lakh were seized from a pond at S Palam village under the Narayanpur forest range of Gajapati district here on Sunday. Sources said acting on a tip-off, Garabandha police along with Narayanpur forest officials conducted a raid at the pond site and seized around 538.8 kg of red sandalwood from the area.
“The timber smugglers most likely failed to transport the logs due to which they dumped those in the pond and fled. A case has been registered and an investigation is underway,” said Garabandh IIC Gobind Gouda.
According to information, Labanyagada Reserve Forest in the Gajapati district was once a hotspot for red sandalwood trees but lack of monitoring has facilitated easy smuggling of the rare wood and left the forests barren.
The Forest department had numbered all the red sandalwood trees in Garabandh, Goshani, Gandahati, Narayanpur, Jalanga and Kitchlingi forests but most got destroyed in the Titli cyclone. While several timber smugglers stole a good number of sandalwood during that time, around 118 trees were recovered and stored by the department.
Though not officially confirmed, the sandalwood logs seized on the day reportedly bore numbers which prove that some unscrupulous forest officials in a nexus with timber smugglers are involved in the illegal business in the area.