Police today said the turtles were packed in jute packets, adding the smuggler abandoned the bags and fled as the BSF tried to intercept him last evening.
The recovered turtles have been handed over to Shipahijala National Park authorities today. Meanwhile, wildlife experts lashed out at the Northeastern State Governments and alleged that due to weak enforcement of law, slaughtering and consumption of endangered turtles and tortoises had become rampant, which was posing a threat to these species included in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act. “India is home to one of Asia’s most diverse turtle fauna and out of 26 available species of turtles and tortoises, 19 are found in the Northeast alone, but now they face an uncertain future due to indiscriminate hunting and killing for meat,” turtles researcher Kulendra Chandra Das told UNI here.
He pointed out that more than 5,000 turtles of five rare varieties had been killed and sold in different markets of the region in past three years and now these amphibians reached the verge of extinction in Northeast. Das said the turtles and tortoises are morphologically unique and play an important role in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and fresh water turtles are known to be water purifiers and also used as biological control agents for livestock.