Forest officials said an advertisement on the Internet said three pods were available for sale. The authorities approached the person, who posted the advertisement online, under the pretext of buying them. Rajiv Peter, the seller, asked the officials to come to his house in Ashok Nagar where he showed them the pods. Officials said the man and his 47-year-old accomplice Bitchu, who was also arrested, demanded Rs 15 lakh per pod.

Preliminary investigation by the officials revealed that the duo had bought the pods six years ago from a wildlife trader in Manali in Himachal Pradesh. The animal is categorised under schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1982. Anyone indulging in the trade on species categorised under this schedule is liable for imprisonment up to three years with a penalty of Rs 25,000 on first instance. Subsequent instances will attract Rs 1 lakh penalty with imprisonment up to seven years, a wildlife official said.

Field operatives of Traffic - India, wildlife crime detection wing of WWF, helped the state forest department authorities to make the arrest and seize the materials. Traffic - India head Shekhar Kumar Niraj said the seizure of musk deer pods in Chennai revealed that poaching of the animal was still on and that the pods had a market in the southern parts of the country. Three years ago musk deer pods had been seized from Mumbai and New Delhi, he said.

Niraj said the seizure indicated that efforts made by forest departments across the country to protect rare and threatened species have not yielded much fruit. As a next step, the forest department will try to trace the trade network, sources said.

Musk deer, which are adapted to high altitudes, are mostly found in the Himalayas across northern parts of India, Sikkim, Nepal and Bhutan. The deer, listed as endangered by International Union for Conservation of Nature, does not have antlers but sports long canines that can grow up to four inches. The pods are found in the abdominal part of the deer and to remove the gland, the deer has to be killed. In the 1990s, in order to bring down the cases of poaching, the Himachal Pradesh government started a musk deer farm. The objective of the farm was to extract the pods without killing the animal. However, the attempt failed and the project was subsequently dropped by the government.

Points for graphics

1. Use of musk in India dates back to several ceturies. In Ayurveda, the traditional Indian medicine system, musk is used for treating cardiac, neurological and mental disorders.

2. Musk deer, known as Kasturi is found in the Himalayas in the country. Scent glands from these animals are highly priced priced one globally.

3. Available records showed that until 5th Century BC, there is no reference to musk in the Western world.

4. Till 1979, musk tinctures were used by the perfume industry due to their strong fixative quality. Subsequently the International Trade on Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna banned the use and export of musk. However, the illegal trade and poaching of this species continues even today, say wildlife authorities.

5. In the 9th Century, Arabs have started buying large quantity of musk from the East and used it in their perfumes.

6. A grain from the musk can scent several cubic feet of air, which is more persistent that any such known substance.

7. When stored, the aroma of musk tincture becomes intense and gives pleasant odour, when it is diluted, available data shows.