More than 5 sandalwood trees have been cut from forest department campus in Navratan Bagh, Indore, in the last six month. Forest department had failed to track the accused, but finally, two accused were arrested for stealing the trees from the campus on Wednesday.

5 sandalwood trees stolen in 6 months, finally 2 arrested
More than 5 sandalwood trees have been cut from forest department campus in Navratan Bagh, Indore, in the last six month. Forest department had failed to track the accused, but finally, two accused were arrested for stealing the trees from the campus on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, two youths chopped off and stole a sandalwood tree from Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF) Betul Prafulla Fuljhele's bungalow in Navratan Bagh. This time, forest officers swung into action as soon as the information was received.
They traced the thieves with the help of sniffer dogs, in which two of the accused was caught by the department. During interrogation, three accused have came to the fore. Even in the CCTV footage, more than one accused has been seen. The department caught the sandalwood thieves and handed the two over to the police.
The incident has been reported late night at 2.30 am. The accused entered the campus and used electronic machine to cut sandalwood tree. CCF Fuljhele’s family members heard chopping sounds and informed the officials.
The information was sent to DFO Narendra Pandwa. The accused fled before forest team reached the spot.
When the forest workers looked around the bungalow, a sandalwood tree was chopped down. After this, CCTV footage was looked into. The forest team saw three youngsters chopping the tree using electric saw.
A sniffer dog was called from the Ralamandal Sanctuary at eight o'clock in the morning to find the accused. The dog took a round in the campus, but found nothing. The dog rushed to a spot 200 meters outside the premises.
The dog led the forest team to a house in the slum adjacent to Masih School. The team found sandalwood blocks and splinters of it.
After questioning, the forest team arrested two accused living in the house. Both accused are in their early 20s and brothers. The accused are Aniket Verma and Ankit Verma.
As per interrogation, their father was the third accused involved in stealing the trees.
DFO Pandwa said, “It is only recently that we have had too many cases of sandalwood trees theft from the forest campus.” The department meant to protect forest has been failing to protect trees in their campus.
“Since more than 5 sandalwood were stolen from our campus in the last six months, we launched an investigation and ensured all the officials prompt actions other than designated official,” Pandwa said.
Negligence of Ranger
Ranger Koshamby Jha was given the responsibility of security of the Forest Division Office at Navratan Bagh. Sandalwood trees have been cut from the house of CCF, DFO, SDO five times between January and July.
The first two incidents happened within just fifteen days duration. During that time nothing was recorded due to the malfunctioning of the CCTV. Because of this the thieves did not get caught. Ranger also did not show seriousness in getting CCTV fixed or tracking the accused.
The investigation was always abandoned after sending an application to police station. The incidents continued, due to the negligence of the department. The third incident came to light in April and the fourth on 8 June. According to sources, there is a possibility of a forest official being involved in support of accused to steal sandalwood trees from the campus.