Sea cucumber bound for Lanka seized

In a major operation against smuggling of sea cucumbers, a team of forest and police officials raided fish processing companies in Rameswaram and seized 300 kg of the endangered species worth Rs 1.50 lakh and arrested a van driver for attempting to smuggle it to Sri Lanka.

The team also seized fishing nets worth Rs. 8 lakh used exclusively for poaching banned marine creatures like sea cucumber, which play a major role in the growth of fish population, officials said.

They said the owner of the fish company where the sea cucumber was seized was absconding.