A team of foresters and police seized 3,943 kg orchids from the house of Surya Bahadur Ghale at Kapilakot village-9, some 30 kilometer away from Sindhuli district headquarters, Wednesday. [break]
District Forest office (DFO) and District Police Office (DFO) of Sindhuli deployed the team following a tip-off from an unidentified person, believed to be among those involved in orchids smuggling.
"One of the members of the smuggling racket himself tipped us off after a dispute in the gang while uploading orchids onto a truck," District Forest Officer Yadav Prasad Dhital told Republica. "Our preliminary probe has found that a big racket is involved in the smuggling."
Recently, on November 19, the government had announced a ban on the trade of orchids. Orchids have been listed in the red list of threatened species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
According to a research-based book titled ´Orchids of Nepal´ by Bhakta Bahadur Raskoti, 302 types of orchids are found in Nepal. Orchids are regarded also as medicinal herbs.
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