Nagapattinam

Police said acting on a tip-off, the CSG personnel searched a van in the locality and seized the sea cucumbers packed in gunny bags from the vehicle.

Two occupants of the van, identified as Muruganandam and Rajkumar, were arrested for attempting to smuggle the sea cucumbers to abroad clandestinely viaThoothukudi. The value of the seized sea cucumbers was estimated at around Rs 1 crore in the international market.

Investigations revealed that the sea cucumbers were procured from the local fishermen in small quantities over a period of time and processed by the duo for smuggling.

Sea cucumbers are in great demand not only as delicacy, but also used for preparing a varietyof traditional medicine in countries like China, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand. They fetchlucrative price in the international market.

Poaching of these marine species, listed in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 was banned in India and several foreign countries.

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