About 2,000 turtles seized, two arrested
20-11-2009 Indian Express, India
About 1,985 turtles were recovered from a mini-truck near Ashoknagar town rail gate in North 24-Parganas late last night. The driver and the helper of the vehicle have been arrested and produced in court today. They have been sent to three-day police custody.
According to the officers of the Ashoknagar police station, the turtles — all of them soft shell Gangetic turtles a protected species under Schedule I category — have been handed over to the district forest office. Incidentally, Schedule I category of the Wildlife Protection Act involves maximum punishment.
Ashoknagar has been in the news with three such consecutive seizures of turtles in the last three days. Yesterday, 535 turtles of the same species were recovered at 10.30 am from Guma area. On November 17, a consignment of 259 turtles was seized from a van.
While the seizure on November 18 did not result in any arrests, there have been five arrests on the other two days.
Both the police and district forest officers suspect that the turtles were being either stored in Bengal to be smuggled across the border or were slated to be sold in the markets across the state.
“Three consecutive seizures of turtles have been a success for us. We are interrogating the accused to know the smuggling route and the purpose of the smuggling. Usually more than being used for its shell, these turtles are in demand for their meat and during winter they are illegally sold in the markets. We, along with the Border Security Force and local police, would be conducting raids and work together to reach to the bottom of the smuggling racket,” said Rana Dutta, District Forest Officer, North 24-Parganas.
(Bron: http://www.indianexpress.com/)
(Bron foto: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-9682-post-82153.html)
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