More red sandalwood seized in Kandla

AHMEDABAD: The Kutch Forest department and district police in a joint operation recovered another cache of red sandalwood - 7.5 tonnes - from a godown in Kandla.
In the last two days, the two agencies have recovered over 22.5 tonnes of red sandalwood which is priced at Rs 10,000 per ton in the international market. He said that the local market price was Rs 400 per ton.
Chief onservator of forests DK Sharma said "The red sandalwood was being brought to Gujarat from Andhra Pradesh for export via Kandla port."
He said the red sandalwood was recovered from the godown of a Delhi-based businessman.
He said a case has been registered against the businessman. He said red sandalwood was prohibited and its trade was illegal.
Sharma further said that this wood was covered with sanitaryware tiles and brought to Gujarat. From here it was illegally exported. There have been some cases of illegal export of red sandalwood in the past too. He added that in one of the incident, a ship which had left for Dubai was asked to return to Kandla from mid sea after reports of red sandalwood smuggling emerged.
Sharma said the ship when checked had red sandalwood.