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22 dead sea cucumbers worth ₹20 lakh seized in Lakshadweep
This is the 7th case this year; over 1,500 kg sea cucumbers have been seized from Lakshadweep this year worth ₹6 crore
The illegal sea cucumber trade in Lakshadweep continues even as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken over investigations into it and a team of the agency is expected to visit the federal territory on Wednesday.
The Lakshadweep forest department on Monday seized a consignment of 22 large sea cucumbers worth around ₹20 lakh from an abandoned building.
“The consignment was stored after processing with preservatives, dried, and kept ready for transportation to the mainland [and] from there to China and other Southeast Asian countries,” said Damodhar AT, secretary, environment, Lakshadweep. He added a wildlife offence report has been filed against unidentified people at a local court. “Further search and investigation are underway to nab the criminals and arrest the accused persons in the crime.”
Also Read: 13 times rise in quantity of sea cucumber seizures from India over five years: Study
Listed as Schedule I species under the Wildlife Protection Act, the trade involving sea cucumbers is banned. These worm-like sea single branched marine organisms (invertebrates) are in high demand across Southeast Asia, mainly China, for food and traditional medicine.
Over 1,500 kg sea cucumbers have been seized from Lakshadweep this year worth ₹6 crore. Authorities made the largest global seizure of 1,716 sea cucumbers from a remote uninhabited island in February. They weighed 852 kg and were estimated to be worth ₹4.26 crore.
Damodhar said cases were rising at an alarming pace even more due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Lakshadweep is the only area where there are no Covid-19 cases. Thus, we are following strict protocols as per Central guidelines... there are boats travelling in domestic waters supplying ice to local fishers and in exchange corrupt fishermen are filling up those boxes with dried sea cucumbers,” he said.
The quarantine period for the CBI team has been reduced from 21 days to seven, said Damodhar. “There is already a huge delay in investigations. We are recovering consignments but have not apprehended the key accused,” he said. “We have completed the recruitment of 200 personnel for the Lakshadweep Marine Wildlife Protection Force which will be deployed across anti-poaching camps across uninhabited islands by November 1.”
As many as 27,166.5 kg of dry, wet, and live sea cucumbers estimated to be worth Rs.29.4 crore (US$3.9 million) have been seized from India over the past five years, an analysis of Hong Kong-based non-profit organisation OceansAsia has found.
Sea cucumbers are typically sold in dried, canned or frozen forms. Sea cucumber powders and extracts are also available. The price of a kg of dried sea cucumber was ₹27,200 (US$370) a decade back.
