60 kg of mud crabs seized from Kolkata-bound bus

Kendrapada: Forest officials seized around 60 kg of live mud crabs packed in two sacks from Kolkata-bound bus at Madanpur village near the Bhitarkanika National Park in Kendrapada district on Wednesday evening.
“We have released the mud crabs into the water bodies of Bhitarkanika,” said the divisional forest officer of Bhitarkanika National Park, Sudarshan Gopinath Yadav. Recently, forest guards were deployed in the park and its neighbouring areas to stop illegal trade of mud crabs. Many traders are supplying crabs from these areas to Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata,” added the forest officer. “The step is being taken to put a stop to large-scale supply of crab by local traders. Crab catchers and suppliers are responsible for the ill effects on local crab population, particularly the alarming depletion of the unique mud crab species found in these protected,” he added. TNN