Gundlupet: The Forest Department personnel have arrested three persons on charges of chopping down sandalwood trees in Bandipur Forest and smuggling them. The arrested have been identified as Nagaiah, Suresh and Maraiah, all residents of Deshipura Colony in the taluk.

The Forest personnel, who were collecting data from camera traps installed during the tiger census near Doddahalla of Maddur Range, heard the sound of a tree being chopped and when they conducted an operation, the Forest staff found three persons chopping the trunks of felled sandalwood trees and arrested them besides recovering 22-kg sandalwood from them.

All the accused have been remanded to judicial custody.

Buffer Zone ACF Ravindra, Maddur Range RFO Sudhakar Nayak, DRFOs Devaraju and Ravikumar, Guards Naveen Kumar, Chikkanna, Mahesh and AVT Girish, Jeevan Kumar and staff of Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF) took part in  the operation.