Imphal, May 18 (IANS) After various drugs, weapons, exotic animals, security forces in Manipur have now arrested a person for illegally trading peacock feather shafts to Myanmar, officials said on Sunday.

A senior official said that Manipur Police arrested one person, identified as Mohammad Sharifuddin (24), who was directly involved in transporting peacock feather shafts to Myanmar without proper documentation.

Sharifuddin is a resident of the border town of Moreh under the Tengnoupal district. Four plastic sacks containing 18 bundles each of peacock feather shafts, in total 72,000, weighing about 142 kg approximately and a car were recovered from Sharifuddin.

The estimated cost of the seized peacock feather is approximately Rs 37 lakh in the international market, the official said.

He said normally various drugs, arms, exotic animals and other contrabands were smuggled between the 398 km-long India-Myanmar unfenced border with Manipur, but for the first time, peacock feather shafts were seized while being illegally traded to the neighbouring country.

The Integrated Check Post (ICP) Moreh, along the International Border between India and Myanmar, located at a distance of about 110 km from Manipur’s capital Imphal, is the biggest trading route between the two countries.

Considering its strategic location, ICP Moreh has the advantage of acting as India’s gateway to the eastern neighbours through the Moreh-Tamu border point, which is presently the only feasible and operational land route for trade between India and Myanmar and other South East Asian Countries, the official said.

According to the official, the ICP Moreh, spread over a total area of 45.58 acres of land and set up in 2018 with an estimated cost of around Rs 72.67 crore, is situated along the proposed 1,360 km long India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway.

The India-Myanmar Friendship Bridge in Moreh connects India to Kalewa in Myanmar’s Sagaing Division. Neighbouring Myanmar, which shares a 1,643 km unfenced border with four northeastern states — Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, and Mizoram — serves as a key transit point for drugs, particularly heroin and methamphetamine tablets, entering India.

–IANS

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