For representational purposes
BARIPADA: Forest officials of Pithabata range on Thursday arrested a person and seized six horseshoe crabs from him.
Sunil Biswas, a resident of Bardhaman district in West Bengal, was caught red-handed while selling the endangered species in the weekly market.
The horseshoe crabs were alive and weighed around 300 to 350 gm each.
“Biswas was selling the marine anthropods along with items like herbal oil and medicinal herbs. He has been arrested under Schedule-IV of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972,” said Ranger Laxmidhar Behera.
The seized crabs will be released in a freshwater body in Baripada or outside on instructions of the DFO, Behera said.
Biswas, meanwhile, said he had bought the crabs from fishermen and exhibited them to attract people to his herbal products and was ignorant of the endangered status of the species.
