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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Indians are, by and large, hypocrites and this becomes all the more apparent when there is an attack on a girl or a woman and her modesty is stolen, she is raped and, at times, brutally killed. Immediately such an incident comes to light, there is a clamor to introduce preventive measures so that such an incident is not repeated and, among the first targets are the dress codes and mobile phones.
Thanks to the advent of the electronic media and the huge popularity of the internet and social networking sites, young men and women have become more knowledgeable about the ways of the world. The bombardment of ads on TV create in them a desire to own those attractive items and imitate lifestyles of the models – and, the models do not worry about showing off their assets. Scantily clad models can be seen in any ad from cosmetics to condoms, and from bikes and jewelry to mobile phones. Short skirts appear to be an accepted dress code for the girls!!
Why is there no clamor to ban such ads?
Similar is the case for movies – each movie nets in thousands of crores of rupees and full credit should go to the scantily dressed heroines and the scintillating item numbers. The people worship the ground on which the heroes and heroines walk on and no one bothers. Then there are the dance competitions on TVs. Labeled as TV reality shows, the participants try to outdo ne another in terms of dress and exposures and earn not just accolades but also cash and presents.
If this is the picture of the India of today, why should a section of people grumble?
Let us shed the mantle of hypocrisy and accept that the fact that the days of pallus, papa-ji, maa-ji, bhaiya and behen are over – today it is the day of jeans, skirts, dad, mom, bro, and sis.