Hyderabad: A huge cache of banned African catfish seedlings, numbering about 1.5 lakh, that were being smuggled from Kolkata to Bidar via Hyderabad was seized by Customs officials at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Shamshabad here on Monday night.
Officials have identified the person, who sent the seedlings from Kolkata, as well as the receiver in Hyderabad. The receiver was supposed to deliver the seedlings to persons known to them in Bidar by road for farming in an illegal pond.
Ranga Reddy District Fisheries officer M Rajaram said the cost of the seized seedlings would be around Rs 3 lakh. Based on a tip-off, the Customs officials examined 44 carton boxes that came in an Indigo flight in the cargo area and opened it to find the seedlings.
“We got a call from the authorities of Customs Department on Monday night seeking assistance to identify fish that was kept in the cargo. We rushed to the airport and checked the boxes and found that it was the banned catfish,” Rajaram explained.
As catfish can survive for over 20 hours without water, the smugglers packed them in air-filled sachets and sent them to Hyderabad.
16/01/18 Telengana Today
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Officials have identified the person, who sent the seedlings from Kolkata, as well as the receiver in Hyderabad. The receiver was supposed to deliver the seedlings to persons known to them in Bidar by road for farming in an illegal pond.
Ranga Reddy District Fisheries officer M Rajaram said the cost of the seized seedlings would be around Rs 3 lakh. Based on a tip-off, the Customs officials examined 44 carton boxes that came in an Indigo flight in the cargo area and opened it to find the seedlings.
“We got a call from the authorities of Customs Department on Monday night seeking assistance to identify fish that was kept in the cargo. We rushed to the airport and checked the boxes and found that it was the banned catfish,” Rajaram explained.
As catfish can survive for over 20 hours without water, the smugglers packed them in air-filled sachets and sent them to Hyderabad.
16/01/18 Telengana Today
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