Santalum album L., one of the most valuable tropical tree species, is predominantly distributed in the southern regions of India, with few reports of its cultivation in West Bengal. The slow-growing, hemiparasitic nature, unique climatic condition for cultivation, and illicit trafficking lead to 80% decline of its natural population over the past three decades. In this study, the morphologically distinct 16 bacteria isolated from the rhizosphere (R=6) and endosphere (E=10) of sandalwood plants collected from Bankura and Burdwan Forest Divisions in West Bengal were taxonomically identified and investigated for their various plant growth promotion (PGP) abilities: production of indole acetic acid, polysaccharide, siderophore, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase, nitrogen-fixing and phosphate solubilization. The bacterial isolates belonged to phylum Bacillota, Actinomycetota, Pseudomonadota and Bacteroidota and 81% exhibited at least three tested PGP traits. Stutzerimonas sp. E3 is reported as a novel PGP endophyte that was positive for all the PGP attributes and may act as a biomarker for sandalwood in these regions. This is the first effort to gain knowledge about the sandalwood-bacterial association and also these indigenous beneficial bacterial strains may be utilized in developing biofertilizers for sandalwood, especially in climatic-constrained, dry regions of the Bankura and Burdwan Forest Divisions of West Bengal.