THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed the Kerala Forest (Amendment) Bill which seeks to impose severe restrictions on sale of sandalwood.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Forest Minister Binoy Viswam has said that the LDF Government had succeeded in checking sandalwood theft from Marayur forest range. At present there are 58,418 sandal trees in this forest range and steps have been taken to monitor the situation on a day-to-day basis, he said while speaking to reporters here on Tuesday.
KOHIMA, Dec 24: Forest Department officials have seized huge quantity of red sandalwood from a truck bound for Manipur. Official sources here today said the Forest officials stopped a truck at the New Field Check Gate at Dimapur last night, which was coming from Kolkata, loaded with tonnes of barbed wire, and the red Sandalwood (Pterocorpus Santelinus) was hidden under the barbed wires.
Tirupur: Minister for Forests N. Selvaraj on Tuesday inspected Kulipatti in the district from where huge quantities of sandalwood were seized by the forest officials during the last fortnight in phases. He along with the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, A. S. Balanathan, examined how smugglers were able to cut down large number of trees in a short span of time.
Pune A resident of Charoli has alleged that Vishrantvadi police have been harassing him for the past two weeks because he dared to take on a PCMC contractor who according to him is responsible for uprooting five sandalwood and other fruit trees at his farmhouse in Charoli while building a road.
KRISHNAGIRI: A forest watcher was injured in firing by an unidentified gang in the reserve forests near Krishnagiri, bordering Andhra Pradesh, in the early hours of Sunday.
Three sandalwood smugglers have been arrested and 343 kg of sandalwood billets valued at Rs 7.50 lakh,seized from them near here, police said today.
Hamid Khan, his wife Yasmeen Khanum and Syed Amjad Khan,who were arrested yesterday, are natives of Bangalore, Superintendent of Police Dr P S Harsha told reporters here today.
