Forest personnel of the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary arrested six fishermen while they were catching fish illegally after trespassing into the 'no-fishing zone' of the sanctuary near Satabhaya on Thursday wee hours.
The forest officials while conducting patrolling came across the Dhamara-based fishing trawler catching fish illegally. They chased the trawler and managed to seize the vessel along with three quintals fish catches, seven fishing nets and other fishing equipments.
The arrested persons identified as Uttamu Dingal, Surendra Behera, laxmikant Bhuiyan, Sapan Jana, Anil Jana and Akhaya Bera of Rajanagar block in the district were later produced before the Rajnagar JMFC Court, from where they were remanded into jail custody as their bail pleas were rejected by the court.
With this, forest personnel have so far seized 25 boats and arrested 135 fishermen since November 1, said sanctuary forest ranger Subrat Patra.