Panaji: Konkan Railway Police on Friday arrested two persons from Kerala at Margao Railway Station for being in possession of ‘whale vomit’, which is a prohibited substance under wildlife protection act, 1972.
Accused Arun Rajan (30) and Nibin Varghese (29) for possessing whale vomit (ambergris) at Margao Railway station at 3 pm on Friday.
A senior police official said that the the information about the accused will be arriving at the railway station with the prohibited substance was received by Konkan Railway Police station, Margao from Vinod Mishra, Inspector of Railway Protection Force, Margao.
Both the accused was supposed to board the train to Kerala, he said.
Accordingly, Konkan Railway Police inspector Sunil Guddler along with the RPF and officials from the state forest department apprehended both the accused and seized from them sticky brownish colour substance properly packed in a carton suspected to be whale vomit.
Amergris is a sticky waxy substance produced in the digestive tract of the whale. Police official said that whales are protective species and hence the possession or trade of any of its products is illegal under the provision of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.
He said that the whale vomit has huge demand in the market as it is used for medicines and also to produce expensive perfumes.
Police said that one kilogram of whale vomit costs above Rs one crore.
The Konkan Railway police seized 5,694 kilograms of whale vomit amounting to Rs 5.60 crore, he said.
