GUWAHATI: A police station in Assam’s Kamrup district turned into a virtual mini zoo on Thursday following the seizure of 41 “exotic” wild animals and birds from two SUVs.
The “biggest ever” seizure of such trafficked animals was made at Rangiya based on intelligence inputs. The consignment was coming from the Mizoram-Myanmar border and destined for Siliguri in West Bengal, the police said.
The vehicles had Delhi registration numbers with Army stickers pasted on them and they traversed over 700 km through Mizoram, Meghalaya and Assam before falling into the police net.
The animals – two kangaroos, 19 different types of primate species, including two suspected to be chimpanzees, two wild birds and 18 tortoises – were seized from the vehicles, Kamrup Superintendent of Police Hitesh Ch Roy told The New Indian Express.
He said the police were taking the help of forest officials to identify the seized species.
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Two persons, Raghu Singh (42), son of Suruli Ghosh of Thena, and Karthik (27), son of Chinaiasamyalagar, Vilipuram, both in Tamil Nadu, were detained.
“We are investigating the case,” the SP added.
There have been a few similar seizures of exotic animals by the Assam police over the past three years. In some of the cases, the vehicles transporting the animals were found to have travelled from Mizoram.