Thieves eye Agar trees, cultivators worried in North Tripura

From A Correspondent

Agartala, Nov 30 : Agar cultivators in North Tripura bordering Assam are spending

sleepless nights as there odours product drew the attention of a new breed of thieves who in the darkness of night cut and taking away the trees.

Fatib Ali, an agar cultivator of Ful Bari village under Churaibari police station is the latest victim of the thieves. On Saturday morning he woke up only to find in his despair that five agar trees from his courtyard are missing. Agar trees are in high demand especially in the Middle East where it is being used for preparing

different kind of scent and other aromatic products. According to Fatib the five trees stolen from his courtyards will fetch at least one and half lakh rupees in Middle East.

The economy of 22 villages along Tripura-Assam border under Churaibari and Kadamtala police station are based on Agar. Many of them have agar gardens and almost every house hold has agar trees in their courtyards.

‘Cultivating agar trees is very much remunerative but we are now at a loss due to these thieves’, said one villager. According to him the thieves use a special type of cutter that cut the trees without creating any noise. The villagers are cultivating agar for years but never felt insecure and was spending a peaceful life. But the sudden appearance of the thieves with soundless cutters has stolen their sleeps. The mysterious thing is that many of the villagers’ claim that they are aware about who are behind these thieves but nobody dare to identify them as they are known to be powerful in the area. They said that most mysterious is the role of the police who despite receiving allegation from Fatib Ali is not going for any vigorous investigation.