The Bengaluru City Crime Branch police recently held 5 persons who were reportedly trying to smuggle Ambergris or sperm whale vomit, said to be priced around Rs 80 crore. In the past couple of months, there has been a spate of incidents involving seizure of Ambergris from several coastal parts of the country. So what exactly is the coveted ‘Ambergris’ and why is the whale vomit so sought after?
The term Ambergris is derived from the Old French word Amber and gris and it translates to grey amber. Although often called whale vomit, Christopher Kemp who is the author of ‘Floating gold: A Natural and (unnatural) history of Ambergris’, has said that it is passed out like feces and can take years to form.
When produced fresh by the whales, it has a sea-smelling, fecal odour and as it starts to solidify it develops a sweet smelling scent and is used in luxury perfumes and even in some traditional medicines.
The substance is formed due to the secretion of the bile duct in the intestines of the sperm whale and are often found floating on the sea or wash up to the shores many a times. Stomach of dead sperm whales can also sometimes contain ambergris. Giant squids are often part of the sperm whales’ food and sometimes the whales might swallow the squid beaks and in order to allow smooth passage of the hard substance, scientists theorize that the whales produce ambergris. Many a times lumps of hardened ambergris have also been found to contain beaks of the giant squid.
Due to its usually rare availability, perfumers have developed other alternatives in its place.
In ancient times, Ambergris is known to have been used in fragrance. Egyptians used to burn the substance as incense, and the Chinese called it ‘dragon’s spittle fragrance’.
The ambergris has been a substance of high value due to its rarity and use in perfume business. According to latest reports, 1 kg of ambergris costs Rs 1 crore in the international market and thus smugglers have constantly targeted the whales for the substance. As the sperm whale is a protected species, its hunting is prohibited.
The Bengaluru incident being the recent one, there have been quite a few similar instances of accused held for trying to smuggle Ambergris. In June, 6 men were held for smuggling whale vomit worth Rs 2 crore in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi. The investigations revealed that the waxy substance was being smuggled in crores in foreign countries such as Indonesia, UK and that they were trying to sell it to Sri Lanka and other foreign countries via Thoothukudi harbour.
Earlier, in another incident, Rs 7 crore worth of ambergris was also seized from some people in Gujarat.
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