Star tortoise smugglers nabbed

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) sleuths have on Sunday caught three persons at Vizag Railway Station, while they were smuggling Indian Star Tortoises in five bags.

According to officials, the trio was travelling in the Yashvantapur — Howrah Express from Vijayawada to Howrah when the sleuths searched their baggage after a tipoff.

“The forest officials confirmed that the tortoises seized were Indian Star Tortoises (zoological name ‘Geochelone elegans’). The three persons admitted that the 1,125 Indian Star Tortoises found in their possession were collected by people from Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh and handed over to them at Chelur, near Balegowdanahalli village, Karnataka. They were asked to take the tortoises to Howrah and hand them over to a person for export to Bangladesh,” the DRI officials maintained.

The Indian Star Tortoises are protected under ‘CITES’ — Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species — and have been declared ‘vulnerable’ by ‘IUCN’ — International Union for Conservation of Nature. They are also listed in Schedule IV of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 and prohibited for export under Foreign Trade Policy. Those found violating this order are liable to face action and have the tortoises seized under the Customs Act 1962, officials said.

The officers seized the tortoises and handed them over to the Forest Range Officer, Vizag for safe custody.