3 held, sea cucumbers seized

Rameswaram, Jan 24 (UNI) A special police team seized 500 kg sea cucumbers from a private export company at Verkodu near here this afternoon.

Acting on a tip off, the special police team raided a private Sea Food Export Company and found three persons were preserving the sea cucumbers, an endangered sea species, for packing and exporting.

The trio - Sukumar, Raj and Pasumalai - who were working in the company, were arrested. The seized sea cucumbers were handed over to Rameswaram Temple police station for investigation.

Sea cucumbers, declared as endangered sea species under the Wild Life Protection Act, possessed medicinal values. They were used for preparing traditional medicines in countries like Taiwan, Japan and China.

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