The value is inside the mature tree
Indian sandalwood’s prized fragrance oil is concentrated in its heartwood—the darker inner wood that forms as a tree grows. That makes a mature tree more than a source of timber: it holds a valuable, portable store of aromatic material. Because that value takes years to accumulate, cutting a wild tree can yield a large payoff at once, while replacing it is slow.
Why darkness changes the calculation
Restrictions on harvesting create a gap between the wood’s market value and the lawful supply available to sellers. For a smuggler, cutting at night is a way to reduce the chance of being seen while felling and removing a tree. Darkness does not make the operation safe or legal; it simply makes detection harder in the moment.
The tactic also reflects the tradeoff built into the illegal market. A tree must be cut and moved, activities that are difficult to hide in daylight. Once the wood is gone, however, the loss is not quickly reversed: a young replacement cannot immediately provide the mature heartwood that makes sandalwood valuable. So each covert harvest can turn a slow-growing resource into an immediate windfall—and leave forests with a loss that takes much longer to repair.
