NEW DELHI: Working in tandem, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) and Tamil Nadu Forest Department officials seized 35 kg sea cucumber near the Pamban railway bridge at Mandapam in Ramanathapuram on July 21.
Two months before this operation, the WCCB teamed up with the Indian Coast Guards and seized 500 kg of this marine animal, concealed in cement bags, from the Kunjarvalasai area of Rameshwaram, making it one of the biggest hauls of this echinoderm in the region in recent times.
These and other seizures in the last few years, off the coast of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and around the Lakshadweep islands, are part of a report that the WCCB has shared with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Secretariat recently and will be taken up during discussions when wildlife protection officials from across the world meet at Panama in November this year.