BENGALURU: Customs officials at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on Sunday night rescued two endangered young monkeys that were being smuggled in suffocating conditions inside a suitcase on a flight from Malaysia to Bengaluru.
The four Siamang Gibbon monkeys and two North Pigtailed Macaques have been rescued and sent back to their country, said customs sources. They were smuggled by a sole passenger by the Malaysian Airlines flight MH 192, which arrived from Kuala Lumpur to Terminal 2 of KIA, at 11.30 pm.
An official said, “Based on profiling, we narrowed down on this specific individual, who is a native of Tamil Nadu. The six monkeys were stuffed between chocolates and clothes inside a single trolley suitcase, which he had checked in at the time of boarding.”
“The monkeys have been flown back to Malaysia on Monday. We have observed a rising trend in the smuggling of exotic species into Bengaluru over the past year,” the official added.
A wildlife expert said Siamang Gibbon are found only in the forests of Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
“There is a demand for exotic species to be nurtured as pets in the country presently,” the exepert said. Pigtailed Macaques, found across South East Asia, are used in biomedical research as their reproductive system is very similar to humans.