Thieves make away with sandalwood trees from Santiniketan

Sandalwood trees fetch a good price and, hence, thieves have begun to steal the trees from Santiniketan - as a result, the police have formed a special team to investigate these frequent thefts and have questioned at least 150 people, including timber traders and residents, to find out who are involved in the racket but have drawn a blank so far.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 13 December 2015.

Forest department people have informed that sandalwood trees grew naturally in Santiniketan and its neighborhood because of the laterite soil.
The thieves have made off with at least eight sandalwood trees this year from various places in Santiniketan which points the finger of suspicion on an organized racket with possibilities of involvement of a section of timber merchants of north Bengal because there are active tree-stealing rackets in the forests of north Bengal.
Sandalwood is quite costly since it is used to make medicines, cosmetics and artefacts and, a full-grown tree could cost around Rs 22 lakh. Obviously, trading in sandalwood is profitable.
The police suspect the thieves to be operating from the Bolpur area. The gang members would carry out regular reconnaissance of sandalwood trees in house compounds in Santiniketan and pick on their prey. There is no database on the number of sandalwood trees in Santiniketan and its neighboring forest areas of Sonajhuri.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Vishwa Bharati loses Rs 2 lakh to stray cows that enter the premises

Visva-Bharati is under attack by bovines and, with stray cows entering the premises, the loss of trees and vegetation is increasing and has thrown up a bill of Rs 2 lakh. As a result, the agriculture and social works department has requested higher-ups to authorize recruitment of people to drive away cows from the campus.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 21 September 2015.

It seems the university authorities have agreed to provide four persons exclusively to drive away the cows that graze the campus.
The garden department of the varsity had planted saplings of Mahogany, Sonajhuri and Eucalyptus trees worth Rs 2 lakh on the campus in 2013 and, most of these have been destroyed by cows. Nearly 200 cows from nearby villages stray into the Santiniketan and Sriniketan campuses every day.
On its part, Visva-Bharati had launched an awareness drive three-years back in Santiniketan and had asked owners of cows. They had made use of the public address system and requested the owners to ensure that their animals did not enter the campus.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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