Siddapur: The forest range officials on Wednesday arrested a man when he was involved in illegally trafficking of Sandalwood peices here near Siddapur.

According to sources, the accused identified as Mubarak Basha, a resident of Sagar taluk in Shivamogga district, was caught red-handed by the forest officials when we was involved in transportation of Sandalwood peices. It is alleged that the accused has cut the sandalwood from Husur forest coming under Halageri gram limits here in the taluk. Around 15.5 kgs of wood has been recovered from the accused's possession, which values 60 thousand rupees.

A team of officials including Sirsi DFO Sudharshan, ACF Abdul Aziz Shaikh, Siddapur RFO Kirankumar Y.K, Mavinagundi subdivisional forest official Shashidhar and others were present in the raid.