The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Sunday said that it seized as many as 781 organs of Bengal monitor lizards and soft corals. One person has been arrested in the matter in Nashik district in Maharashtra.

According to the DRI, the officials had received specific intelligence that a gang of wildlife traffickers was seeking prospective buyers for Hatha Jodis (Bengal Monitor Lizard Hemipenes) and soft corals. While acting upon the information, a team of officers of DRI Mumbai laid a trap for the traffickers. The extremely cautious trafficker initially called the buyers, who were closely monitored by the DRI team, to Nandagaon railway station (Nashik district) but kept on changing locations for nearly 3 hours, finally deciding to exchange at a tribal hamlet with an extremely harsh terrain consisting of thorny scrubland with no scope for movement of four-wheelers.