Nearly 280 turtles seized from smuggler in Kolkata

Nearly 280 turtles seized from smuggler in Kolkata
Jun 7, 2015

280 turtles of rare species were recovered from the home of a villager near the India-Bangladesh border at Bongaon in North 24-Parganas on Saturday. The accused, Hafijur Rahaman, has been arrested.

Rahaman reportedly had plans to smuggle the turtles into Bangladesh where they would have been sold.

Acting on a tip-off, a police team from the Bongaon police station raided Rahaman home at Purbapara and found the turtles stashed in gunny bags in his courtyard.

"The turtles were found in 20 gunny bags. We are interrogating the accused. We are investigating if more people are involved in the racket," said Bhaskar Mukherjee, ASP, North 24-Parganas, adding the forest officials had been informed about the recovery.

Till date I have occasionally heard about smuggling of turtles in open markets of Birbhum and Murshidabad.

Turtles used to be sold for meat in the open market earlier. Some were sold for blackmagic as well. One can still find turtles, monitor lizards etc being sold in North east, at times in the open.

Recently in a public function, a minister in the Madhya Pradesh Govt. talked about fish and turtle meat being good for health. So I guess, turtles may be sold in Madhya Pradesh as well.