Vadodara: In a first, the forest department has arrested a man for selling coral illegally in the state. Ashutosh Gaekwad, a resident of Waghodia Road, was caught red-handed by the forest officials when he tried to sell the coral. He is now in judicial custody.
According to forest officials, they had received information about the illegal coral business from a wildlife organisation some days ago. “We then sent in a decoy customer who contacted Gaekwad. The customer demanded Rs 1,000 kg of coral but Gaekwad said that he only had 200 kg, so a deal was struck and Gaekwad met our decoy customer on October 22 in Harni area,” said Vinod Kumar Damor, assistant conservator of forest (ACF), Vadodara.
The forest officials nabbed Gaekwad and seized 200 kg of coral from him. They later raided his house and seized another 30 kilograms of coral.