2,000 tortoises seized, two arrested

11 March 2012

biswabrata goswami
MIDNAPORE, 11 MARCH: Belda police seized 2,000 tortoises from a vehicle on National Highway 60 near Belda today, and arrested two people who were transporting the animals.
The seized tortoises, which are mostly rare species, were later handed over to forest department officials. According to forest officials, the value cost of the seized tortoises is estimated at around Rs 2 lakh.
The vehicle may have been headed to South-east Asia via Kolkata. A senior forest officer said most of the turtles seized in West Midnapore come from Odisha. Kolkata acts as a centre: once consignments reach the city, they are smuggled to South-east Asia.
In most cases, poor people are used as transporters and the real culprits remain beyond the reach of the law. Turtles are in huge demand in South-east Asian countries, the forest officer said. Some people keep turtles in their homes as good omens, while others like them on platters.
Mr Rana Purohit, an wildlife activist in Midnapore, said the vital organs of turtles are also used in preparing medicines. In Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, the state forest departments focus only on protected areas, leaving turtle smugglers to find their prey in rivers outside of such areas. Mr Ashish Samanta, DFO (east), said the turtles are not only smuggled through Kolkata, but also through the India-Bangladesh border.
"The smugglers use the porous Bangladesh border often as the turtle have huge demand in various countries," he said.