Good Information on Valampuri Conch

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A diver lucky enough to find a 'valampuri' chank is guaranteed 1000

times the standard rate (on average only one or two are found during

the fishing season), but he will be tempted to smuggle it out of the

State, often to Pondicherry, where it would fetch even more on the open

market. Only three had been declared in the two years before our visit.

We were shown these, kept in a safe in the Government offices in

Madras; although nicely displayed in velvet lined boxes, the odour of

decaying chank was still pervasive. The sale of 'valampuri' chanks is

advertised and the sealed tenders are all opened on a certain date, the

shell going to the highest bidder; in 1982 bids of around 4,000 rupees

were expected for a patti specimen and 16,000 rupees for a jathi.

 

It should be noted that whereas we refer to the reversed chank as

'left-handed' or sinistral, the Indians call the 'valampuri'

right-handed, because they orient it with the spire downwards and the

aperture uppermost and, consequently, on the right side of the shell.

 

In Colombo we saw specimens of the common lightning whelk, Busycon

contrarium Conrad, from Florida, which is naturally sinistral, being

traded "fraudulently" as genuine 'valampuri' chank.

 

Ref. http://princelystates.com/ArchivedFeatures/fa-03-03b.shtml

 

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