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Wild life poacher in STF net, 295 turtles recovered
UP Special Task Force (STF) claimed to have busted a wild life poaching racket with arrest of a person in Lucknow on Sunday
UP Special Task Force (STF) claimed to have busted a wild life poaching racket with arrest of a person in Lucknow on Sunday. The officials also recovered 295 turtles from his possession.
The arrested person was identified as Mohd Wasim, a diver from Unnao. He was working as a carrier for wild life poachers linked to international wild life smuggling racket. The accused was arrested in Lucknow’s Banthra area when he was carrying the turtles to hand over to some other persons, stated the STF officials in a press note.
The accused was further being quizzed to extract details of other persons linked to it, the press note added.
The STF officials said as many as 20,000 turtles were being smuggled from UP every year, leading to a precipitous decline in its population. They said the indiscriminate hunting and smuggling of the creatures has come to a head in recent times forcing the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau to issue an alert.
They said there were many gangs who prowl turtle habitats in the Ganga, Yamuna, Chambal, Gaghra, Sharda, Ken, Betwa and Rapti river basins.
“The turtle smuggling network in the country extends from UP to Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. Kolkata has emerged as the main transit point for such smugglers, with turtles being illegally shipped to Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Thailand, Hong Kong and other Southeast Asian countries from its shores,” said the officials.
They said there is a huge demand for Indian turtles in the international market for three reasons — meat, its feng shui connection and production of aphrodisiacs (a substance that increases sexual desire).
According to officials, the turtle smugglers’ network comprises local fishermen who trap turtles, ‘collectors’ who buy the reptiles from them, ‘couriers’ who transport them to transit points, and ‘traders’ who ship the consignments to Southeast Asian countries. They said the turtle hunting season reaches its peak in the post-monsoon months of September and October. From November to January, turtles are transported to Kolkata from local hideouts.
