Thai customs found hundreds of live turtles and tortoises along with some gavials, all smuggled through Dhaka, in air luggage at Bangkok’s main airport yesterday, reports AFP.
The haul included five species of endangered and critically endangered Bangladeshi turtles and about $33,000 worth of 35 star tortoises, a species native to South India. They are popular as pet for elegant patterns on their shells.
Suitcases, carrying the animals, safely crossed Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka but were seized in transit at Suvarnabhumi Airport en route to India.
The owner of the luggage escaped before police could arrest him.
The AFP did not mention the count of the animals that included gavials, the only surviving member of the once well-represented family Gavialidae and listed as a critically endangered species by IUCN.
It was the latest in a series of wildlife seizures in the kingdom.
Also, early yesterday customs officials seized 480 star tortoises from a Malaysia-bound Indian national at the Dhaka airport.
Wildlife expert SMA Rashid seeing photographs of the turtles and tortoises, told The Daily Star that the five species are Sylheti roof turtle, spotted pond turtle (pora kaitta), Bengal eyed turtle (holud Kaitta), Asian leaf turtle and Shila turtle.
The Sylheti roof turtle, last officially sighted in Bangladesh in 1986, is a critically endangered species while the rest are treated as endangered.
The star tortoise, much-coveted in pet trade across the globe, is listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and a permit is required to export them. In July 2006, police recovered 1,600 tortoises of this kind at Rajshahi land port.
Thailand — home to some of the world’s largest wildlife trafficking operations — seized more than 1,000 tortoises and turtles smuggled into the country on a flight from Bangladesh September last year.
Source : The Daily Star, Thai TecH News
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