THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Two middle-aged men were arrested by the forest department after they were found in possession of sea cucumber at Vizhinjam on Saturday. Ratheesh aka Shiju kumar and Aji were arrested on the basis of a tip-off received by Paruthuppally forest range officer.
The two men hailed from Thiruvananthapuram district and are suspected to be middlemen engaged in procuring the banned marine invertebrates meant for illegal trafficking to Far Eastern countries where they are used as folklore medicine as well as delicacy seafood.
The forest sources said sea cucumber weighing 1.5 kg was recovered from the two and it’s suspected to have been supplied by another group that’s engaged in its illegal harvesting.
Thiruvananthapuram DFOA Shanavas said it’s for the first time sea cucumber was seized from South Kerala coast.
“The invertebrate was in a semi-dried state. It could’ve been illegally harvested from deep or shallow sea by another gang that’s specialized in it. Sea cucumber poaching has been reported from the Gulf of Mannar and other coasts in Tamil Nadu. We are checking the source of the seized contraband to identify whether it was poached from Kerala coast,” he said.
Owing to reports that properly processed sea cucumbers demand high prices in the international market, they are poached widely, prompting the conservationists to include it in the IUCN Red List as an endangered species.
However, the forest department sources claimed that the reports of sea cucumber getting high prices were bogus.
“Lot of people, including youngsters, fall prey to such a false notion that poaching these things can fetch them exorbitant prices. It’s not true. The agents and those harvesting it get peanuts. It changes multiple hands before reaching final customers and the price is not as steep as reports claim,” said a department source.
Sea cucumbers act as scavengers and are indispensable for maintaining the health of the marine ecosystem.
The duo were produced before the Forest Court and remanded to judicial custody.