Which is the best place to steal sandalwood in the city? Following this logic, sandalwood thieves landed at the doorstep of Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Ltd. (KSDL), renowned for production of Mysore Sandal Soap and sandal oil in Yeshwanthpura, and felled three sandalwood trees in the wee hours on Thursday.
Ironically, the company is finding it tough to procure enough sandalwood. Presently, with sandalwood reserves depleting in the state, neighbouring states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu have turned the chief suppliers of sandalwood for KSDL. However, the company that has over 120 fully grown sandalwood trees among hundreds of smaller trees, has seen sandalwood theft from the premises itself.
The incident came to light on Thursday morning when a few officials came to the office and found the trees stumps and alerted the security guards. They lodged a complaint with the Subramanyanagar police.
“The three trees were young and the total value of sandalwood lost is estimated to be around Rs. 25,000. The trees were close to the compound wall near Yeshwanthpur Road leading to the metro station. The tree cutters seem to have jumped over the compound wall, cut the trees and taken them across the compound wall,” a security official from KSDL said.
There are a total of three security guards patrolling the 34 acre campus during night time. “The security guards are patrolling through the campus and were not present at this part of the campus, when the incident occurred,” the security official said.
Police officials probing the case said that the investigation was severely handicapped as there are no CCTV cameras installed anywhere in the vicinity. “We are trying to analyse the footage from the CCTV cameras from the nearby traffic junctions to pin down the vehicle transporting the felled trees,” an official said.
