MAN HELD FOR TRYING TO SMUGGLE PEACOCK FEATHERS OUT OF INDIA

By P.Vijian

CHENNAI, Sept 22 (Bernama) -- A man's attempt to smuggle peacock tail
feathers to Malaysia did not go unnoticed by eagle-eyed Indian Customs sleuths.

They spotted the man behaving awkwardly at the airport here last Thursday
and promptly picked him up for questioning.

The man began to stammer as he was questioned and raised more suspicion in
the Customs officers, who conducted a thorough search of his luggage and found
27 kg of peacock tail feathers wrapped in clothing, newspapers and artificial
flowers.

The officers seized the feathers, valued at nearly RM5,000, from the man,
who was from Ramanathapuram District in Tamil Nadu, a senior investigating
officer of Chennai Customs told Bernama.

He said the man had claimed that an unidentified man had given him the bag
outside the airport and that he was to deliver it to some relatives in Malaysia
at the airport in Kuala Lumpur.


"The suspect is not a regular traveller and is a petty trader from
Ramanathapuram. We have released him, but once the Wildlife Department furnishes
us the details, we may charge him," said the officer on condition of anonymity.

The Customs Department is trying to ascertain whether the suspect was
travelling abroad using a forged passport and had been involved in smuggling
peacock feathers in the past.

The tail feathers of the peacock, India's national bird, are banned from
export under the Customs Act 1962 and Wildlife Protection Act 1972.

-- BERNAMA