NEW DELHI: While some of the Indian tortoises are under threat due to international wildlife trade for their ornamental value and good luck charm, the winter season sees a spike in their illegal trade in the domestic market for their meat.
The UP police recently apprehended a person last week and seized about 300 turtles from him in Mainpuri district of the state. “The illegal trafficking of these freshwater turtles has been on and it goes up during the winters due to high demand of turtle meat in West Bengal and Northeast,” says Jose Louies, Deputy Director WildLife Trust. "The poachers operating in the Gangetic regions of the UP have been running organised syndicates of this illegal market,” says Louies adding that"the trade has been checked to a large extent."
Talking about the recent seizure the Superintendent of Police, Mainpuri, Kamlesh Dixit said, “While we have seized 300 turtles we are investigating the matter further. The turtles appear to be of a rare kind and we are taking the help of experts to ascertain the exact species.” Dixit further added that the police have just apprehended one person “we are trying to find out if he is a part of an organised cartel.”
Besides the demand for its meat in winters, Indian turtles are in demand for their exotic value as pets in the domestic as well as international markets. “Also, they are considered to be auspicious and also for the belief in the South east countries that they are considered lucky charms and bring good fortune,” says Louies.
While flap shell turtles are being poached for their meat, black terrapin red-crowned roof turtles are more in demand as pets and aquarium delights in India while there the demand of star turtles has been high in the Indian as well as international market. “The trade of all these turtles which are natives of India are banned under the Wild Life Protection Act hence trading them or keeping them as pets is illegal,” Loiues asserts.
Smuggling of star turtles has been high with the species fetching upto 2000 Euros in the international market. The DRI, which has been playing a pivotal role in tackling environmental crimes, besides tracking smuggling cartels, have made some significant seizures in recent times. According to a report, during 2021-22 about 4,762 Indian star tortoises were seized while being attempted for export.
According to a DRI report the most-trafficked tortoise species in the global illegal pet trade is the Indian star tortoise which is a species native to India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. These star tortoises are collected from India in large quantities and smuggled primarily into Southeast, East Asian countries and now even to some countries in the US and Europe.
In a recent incident in Mumbai around mid-December 2022, Police in Mumbai’s Borivali (West) arrested a accused for allegedly smuggling star tortoises in a blue ice box, worth several lakhs. In another incident around August last year, a man was nabbed at the Bengaluru airport while trying to board a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok. On being checked on suspicion the authorities found 60 Indian star tortoises stuffed tightly in his bag, wrapped with clothes to avoid identification while security screening.
“There are organised cartels that are into breeding and crossbreeding of these exotics and endangered species like the star tortoises, to smuggle them out of the country in large numbers. They are believed to bring prosperity,” says a Customs official.
But ironically though these turtles are said to bring good luck and better fortunes, they pass though pathetic, harsh conditions stash in bags, tightly packed boxes and bundled in wrappers and most of the time they are just lucky to be even alive.