More than 100 full grown trees, including arjun, mahogany, akashmoni, sishu and mango, have been felled on government land in Nadia’s Santipur, prompting a nature care platform to lodge a police complaint.

Sources in the nature platform, Paribesh Bhabna Mancha, said the goons were lighting up fires at the dead of night on the ground where the trees are located.

The fire blackens the trees and makes them look lifeless. They then announce that the trees have died dead and fell them.

Sunanda Karmakar, a timber merchant in Nadia’s Chakdah, said: “These trees are in great demand in the furniture market.”

A forest department officer said: “A full-grown mahogany tree costs around Rs 1.10 lakh, an akashmoni tree can fetch Rs 40,000 and a sishu tree can sell for Rs 70,000 to Rs 80,000.”

Members of Paribesh Bhabna Mancha that lodged the police complaint on Thursday said the fires had alerted them to the foul play.

Sanjib Kastha, the joint secretary of the platform, said: “We had information that a group of men were felling trees regularly after lighting fires in areas in Santipur. So on Wednesday, me and some other members were visiting one such area. We found some people lighting up a fire at the base of an akashmoni tree. We asked them why they were lighting the fire. They said it was a dead tree and hence, they were setting fire to it with dry leaves. But when we protested that the tree was not dead, they abused us verbally and threatened us with dire consequences if we did not leave.”

The joint secretary of the organisation, Raghunath Karmakar, said the fire was being lit to mislead the people.

Local sources said over 10,000 trees of different kinds apart from a huge number of mango orchards are located on the land that belongs to the fisheries department, PWD and private individuals and they are the lungs of Santipur.

An officer of Santipur police station said: “We have not started a case so far. But we have started night patrolling in the area.”