Hesaraghatta: Miscreants set two acres of land on fire, which reduced to ashes 80 Nilgiri trees at Gopalpura village of Dasanapura Hobli.
The locals who saw smoke emanating around 12 noon, tried to put it off using water and mud, but valuable eucalyptus trees were lost in the fire.
The locals say that there are a lot of students studying in Soladevanahalli college, who visit the place frequently to smoke cigarettes. They suspect that the students must have sparked the fire. There were 160 Nilgiri trees in the area, out of which 80 were completely burnt in the fire.
The police used to come to this place on their daily rounds but recently they have stopped the rounds, say the locals adding that this has made the students carry on their activities unabated.
