Massive Turtle Trafficking Operation Uncovered in Pilibhit, 150 Endangered Turtles Rescued | Bareilly News
PILIBHIT: A day after the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR) authorities devised a plan on the eve of World Turtle Day to intensify surveillance to effectively curb turtle trafficking, a team, acting on a tip-off, led by the sub-divisional forest officer (SDFO), Ramesh Chauhan, succeeded in apprehending two turtle traffickers.They were carrying over 150 turtles of different species, listed in Schedule-I of the Wildlife Protection Act, in an SUV.The third trafficker, Sachin Singh from Uttarakhand’s Udhamsingh Nagar district, who was the mastermind behind the turtle trafficking, managed to evade the enforcement team. Given the turtles’ distant origin and their numbers, officials suspect a connection between the traffickers and an international network of turtle smuggling. Two traffickers, identified as Rakesh Mandal (28) and Vishal Gayan (26) from the same village in Uttarakhand, disclosed in the presence of TOI that they bought the turtles from Rasulabad–Kanpur road near Rasulabad Ghat of the river Ganga. They divulged that “the turtles in Rasulabad are kept ready for sale in packed condition for prompt dealing. Packed in jute bags, the turtles are sold by weight at the rate of Rs 150 per kilogram without any consideration of specific species.” Of the two nabbed traffickers, Vishal is an arts graduate.The traffickers were apprehended on Saturday afternoon near a Bangali village, Tanda Colony, under Neuria police station limits in Pilibhit, which was the initial supply point for the turtles. Later, the turtles were scheduled for supply to Udhamsingh Nagar through their next links in the chain.Dr Shailendra Singh, the director of Turtle Survival India Alliance, identified the rescued turtles as belonging to the Indian soft shell, Indian flap shell, Indian peacock shell, and Indian narrow head species – all protected under the Wildlife Protection Act’s Schedule-I. Based on the recovery of two mobile phones and five SIM cards from the traffickers, the divisional forest officer (DFO) of PTR, Manish Singh, said, “We will track the mobile phone details of the recovered SIM cards, which will help detect information about the traffickers’ network.” This was the first instance where information about the traffickers’ connectivity in Tanda Colony village in Pilibhit surfaced, he added.“After seeking legal advice from the departmental lawyers, we shall register a case against the three traffickers under relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act, while a release order for the turtles would be obtained from the court at the soonest to release the rescued turtles in the Mala river at PTR,” DFO Singh said, adding that around 10 turtles in the jute bags died due to suffocation and dumping, while the legs of two giant turtles of narrow-headed species were tightly tied with jute cord to make them immovable.
