CHENNAI: In one of the biggest crackdowns on wildlife trafficking in the city, officials from airport customs and the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) along with the Tamil Nadu Wildlife Warden seized as many as 22 animals belonging to seven exotic species that reached Chennai airport from Thailand. The seizure further led them to a two-storey house in Kolathur where several hundreds of other animals were stored.
It all began when Mohammed Meera Sardharali arrived in Chennai on Air Asia flight FD 153 at 11.10 pm on Saturday. Air Customs sleuths interrogated him and in his checked-in bag, they found 22 exotic animals, including one Siamang Gibbon (monkey native to Indonesia and Thailand), two Sunda flying lemur (a bat-like mammal native to Myanmar, Indonesia and Thailand), one red foot tortoise, five Indo-chene box turtles, nine four-eyed turtles, one keeled box turtle, two green pythons and one white-lipped python.
Except for the lemur, all the other species are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act and the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). Customs sleuths arrested Sardharali and a receiver named Mohammed Ithris from outside the airport. In most cases, this is where the customs probe concludes.
However, in coordination with the WCCB and the wildlife warden, the sleuths managed to secure details of an address in Kolathur in connection with the case. They raided the house on Sunday, and to their utter shock, the two-storey house contained hundreds of native and exotic species of animals like star tortoise, Indian roofed turtle, tricarinate hill turtle, black pond turtle and royal ball pythons. No human was found in the house.
All the animals were either smuggled or in the process of being trafficked to foreign countries. The house is suspected to be the ‘transit point’ from where it is sent to buyers for a price, sources said. Multiple sources said seizing exotic and native wildlife in the same case, and catching the wildlife carrier and receiver together were unprecedented instances in the state.
A senior wildlife official noted that a detailed investigation will be held into the ‘forward and backward’ linkages of the case. The exotic species were fed food and water as per the advice of WCCB officials and sent back to Thailand, the customs said in an official statement.