Forest officials in the district arrested one person and seized several idols made of sandalwood from a house at Muttathara on Monday.
The accused, Jayakumar, aged 46, was apprehended from a rented house during a raid conducted on the basis of a tip-off received by B. Santhosh Kumar, Assistant Conservator of Forest, Forest Intelligence Cell.
Ganapathy idols
The confiscated items included a ‘Vishwaroopam’, and seven Ganapathy idols, all made of sandalwood.
The ‘Vishwaroopam’ idol weighed over 6 kg and is at least 4-foot high.
Worth of the idols
All the items were found to be in various stages of being carved.
They are estimated to be fetch nearly Rs.1.5 crore in the international market.
The team of officials, which conducted the raid, included Flying Squad Divisional Forest Officer J.R. Ani, Paruthipally range officer Divya S.S. Rose, Palode range officer S.V. Vinod, Control Room range officer P.V. Jayakumar and Neyyar range officer H.T. Jose.
Sources said that the idols were carved using the heartwood, the inner portion of the tree.
Large quantities
This would have required large quantities of sandal wood, giving rise to the possibility that numerous trees could have been chopped for the purpose.
Artisan
The accused is believed to have been the artisan, who functioned as a middleman in the illegal trade of sandalwood products.
Source of sandalwood
An investigation will be launched to obtain further details regarding the illegal trade including the source of the sandalwood and the prospective customers for such products.
The accused persons will be produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court (Forest Offences) at Nedumangad on Tuesday.
