Large quantity of sandalwood and red sanders seized

Mysuru: The Forest Department officials and staff, who raided handicraft shops in city, have seized a large quantity of sandalwood and red sanders pieces, billets and powder from the shops.

Acting on a tip off that a few shops in city, selling handicraft items and silk sarees, were selling sandalwood and other items illegally, a team of Forest Department staff, led by Mysuru Forest Mobile Squad Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) Chandrashekar Gowda Patil and Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) C. Rudresh, conducted separate raids on four shops in city and seized 249 sandalwood pieces weighing 15.83 kgs, 537 pieces of red sanders weighing 26 kgs, 4.5 kg sandalwood powder, more than 5 kg of red sanders powder and 750 gms of sandalwood billets besides registering cases on the shop owners.

Meanwhile, Forest Department officials said that the public should be aware that the Forest Department has not given license to any shop to sell sandalwood products. If there is a necessity to buy sandalwood, public can purchase the same at the Government Sandalwood Depot in Aranya Bhavan at Ashokapuram in city.

Forest officials K. Surendra, Sachin, V. Muthuraju, H. Raghavendra, Desai Yogeshwari, T.C. Kannika, Sumalatha, C.S. Mohan and staff Kumar, Rani, R. Kumar, Siddaraja Shetty, Tirupathi Poojara and others took part in the raid.