Officials of the Bhubaneswar forest department on Saturday caught a snake venom smuggling racket and arrested six people including a woman.
According to District Forest Officer (DFO) Ashok Mishra, one litre of snake venom has been seized from the accused: “We have seized one litre of snake venom and five vials of five millilitres each, procured from Bargarh. Three persons, including a woman from Balasore, had made a deal for ? 10 lakhs. It is worth over ? 1 crore on the international market,” he said.
Mr Mishra further informed that for collecting one litre of venom about 200 cobras are to be needed.
“Six persons who were involved in the case have been arrested under section Section 9, 39, 44, 49 and 51 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and they will be forwarded to the court tomorrow,” he added.
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