Chennai, Feb 23 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu government will form two units of the Marine Elite Force to combat marine wildlife crimes, including smuggling, prevention, and poaching of marine animals, especially in the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay.

Each unit will have five marine watchers who will be moving around in two deepwater boats. These units will interact with other agencies like Customs, Coast Guards as also with Indian Navy officers for intelligence gathering.

The primary objective of the force is to protect the management of the marine areas and also watch out for disasters involving marine and coastal wildlife.

Marine resources are constantly exploited for economic reasons and protected species are also hunted illegally due to the huge price they fetch in international markets.

Marine turtles, sea cucumbers, sea horses, sharks and rays, pipefishes, dugongs, and dolphins are regularly poached and hunted down for various economic benefits and hence the state government has decided to form a Marine Elite Force to tackle this down.

Tamil Nadu has already sanctioned an amount of Rs 1.09 crore for establishing two units of the force.