Continuing the anti-poaching drive launched on Thursday, the Indian Coast Guard Ship Kanaklata Barua, in a sea-air coordinated operation, apprehended another poaching boat with 05 Indonesian poachers on Friday taking the toll to 13 with the apprehension of 8 Myanmarese and 5 Indonesian poachers off Barren Island.
During the operation, launched in the early hours of Friday, the Dornier aircraft located one suspicious boat 50 nm south east of Barren Island. Immediately the information was passed to ICGS Kanaklata Barua which had apprehended 08 Myanmarese poachers previous evening and was patrolling in the area.
The boat, on being detected by the Coast Guard aircraft, attempted to flee towards International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) at high speed. The motivated officers and men under the command of Commandant (JG) SC Singh disregarded the rough sea conditions and reached the reported position of suspicious boat at 1400 hrs, but could not locate the boat.
Meanwhile, a Dornier aircraft was re-launched at 1330 hrs from Port Blair and successfully located the suspicious boat. The ship was vectored by aircraft to intercept the boat. Finally, at 1500 hrs ICGS Kanaklata Barua successfully apprehended 05 Indonesian poachers along with the boat.
The Coast Guard Ship entered Port Blair harbor on Saturday at about 12.30 pm with all 13 poachers (08 Myanmarese and 05 Indonesian) and apprehended boat under escort. All poachers and apprehended boat have been handed over to Police authorities for legal formalities, a release from the Chief Staff Officer (Operation) of Coast Guard Regional Headquarters says.
Echo of India