Police in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India, have arrested a gang of smugglers allegedly smuggling red sandalwood, inspired by the hit Telugu film ‘Pushpa’.
In this film, the hero Pushpa Raj is a laborer who smuggles expensive sandalwood from the state of Andhra Pradesh with the help of his friends.
However, according to local media, in this true story, one of the accused also had an MBA, but he was unemployed before becoming a smuggler.
On Monday, the police received information from an informant that smugglers were smuggling red sandalwood from another state in a car to be sold at a high price to nearby religious institutions.
According to the details received by the police along with the forest department, a check post was set up and seven smugglers were arrested.
The search for four more is on. These accused belong to different states of India. The police recovered about 563 kg of sandalwood, worth around Rs 1 crore, from the gang.
According to the police statement, the investigation revealed that these men ‘watched the movie Pushpa and decided to form a group to illegally smuggle sandalwood from (the southern state of) Andhra Pradesh at high prices. but were supplying to the religious places of Mathura and surrounding areas.
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Mathura, about 100 km from Delhi, is an important religious site of the Hindu faith with numerous temples and many people visiting for religious tourism.
Sandalwood is used during pujas due to its high demand in Mathura.
In a statement released to local media, police officer Shailesh Kumar Pandey said, “Their interrogation yielded important information that indicated where they were coming from and where the wood was.
Sandalwood is quite expensive in the market, especially red sandalwood. It contains several types of sandalwood which are sold at different prices.
Its value can be gauged from the fact that the Andhra Pradesh government sold red sandalwood at prices ranging from Rs 15 lakh per tonne to Rs 1.95 crore per tonne in 2021.
Red sandalwood is found in India only in the southern states and the Eastern Ghats. It is a small tree with a height of five to eight meters.
This wood is used locally and internationally in carving, furniture, and building construction. Apart from this, this wood is also used in various Ayurvedic medicines in India.
