Tamil Nadu: 750kg sea cucumber worth Rs 50 lakh seized

TUTICORIN: Forest department personnel attached to the Gulf of Mannar marine national park arrested three people and recovered 750kg of processed and semi-processed sea cucumber from them in the wee hours of Thursday.
The three were caught when they were boiling the sea cucumbers in a shed belonging to a sea food making company close to a crematorium near the East Coast Road at Gomaspuram in the outskirts of the city.
Forest department personnel valued the sea cucumber at Rs 50 lakh in the international market.
Forest range officer for the marine national park R Raghuvaran said that after completing their routine night rounds they were on their way to the range office when a distinct pungent foul smell that emanates while boiling sea cucumber drew their attention around 1.30am.
The team reached VSF enterprises, a sea food company that is located about 50ft from the East Coast Road.
They surrounded the tin sheet shed in which the sea cucumber was being boiled in big vessels and detained K Senthil Kumar,48, of Thiruvadanai in Ramanathapuram district, A Sathikbatcha, 37, of Thondi in Ramanathapuram district, and Nanthakumar, 21, of Thainagar in Tuticorin district, who were inside.
Senthil Kumar is a second time offender who was last detained by the Sivagangai district police last year for smuggling sea cucumber last year, while the two others are first time offenders.
Inquiry revealed that they were engaged by habitual offenders Mansoor Ali and Meera Shah who have five and six such cases against them, respectively, and the owner of the sea food company Vijayakumar.
Raghuvaran said that the six have been booked under 14 sections of The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and search was on for the three others who were at large.
They were to take the sea cucumber to Vedalai in Ramanathapuram district and smuggle it to Sri Lanka by boat. Process is underway to seal the sea food company.