HYDERABAD: The sandalwood trees in Indira Park are often targeted by thieves and the park authority comes across such attempts every two months. There are about 285 sandalwood trees in the park.
Now the quirky part, some thieves chose to steal the precious wood on full moon or New Moon nights, as they believe the wood gives more amount of oil and emits more smell if chopped on those days. The trees came up naturally at the park, and some of the trees were cross pollinated. “The trees came up naturally and the wood quality is inferior,” said B Sridhar Rao, horticulture officer. “Last month, a man attempted to cut one tree in the night. Our security guards chased him and he managed to escape by scaling the boundary wall,” Sridhar said.