About 14,600 litres of jaggery wash and 17 stoves used for making ID liquor were destroyed during a joint raid conducted by the Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB), Forest and Police Departments in the Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS), nine-km from Gadimoga village on the Kakinada coast.
SEB East Godavari ASP Sumit Garud said this was the biggest raid in the State as well as in the Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary, in which the locals reportedly set up ID liquor units by destroying the mangrove cover. Seventeen stoves were found in the location, with a capacity to produce 5,000 liters of ID liquor a day. However, no one was nabbed during the raid on Saturday morning. They teams deployed in the raid ventured deep into the mangrove cover following a three-hour journey through the backwaters and mangrove forest. The forest department joined the raid for the first time on Saturday.
Mr. Garud said the teams destroyed at least 40 empty drums found on the site for the transportation of liquor. “We suspect that the production of the ID liquor is going on a large-scale in the sanctuary, reportedly by the local communities around the sanctuary,” he said.
