MALKANGIRI: In a major crackdown, forest officials seized 489 Indian softshell turtles weighing around a tonne and arrested two persons in this connection.
The accused Prasanjit Gharami and Sandeep Bepari are natives of MV-96 within Kalimela police limits, said officials of Malkangiri forest division. Preliminary investigation suggests the turtles were being smuggled to MV-79 and MV-72 from Narsinghpatnam of Andhra Pradesh for their meat. “This is the second major seizure of the protected species within a month.
In the previous seizure carried out around three weeks back, we had seized around 460 turtles of the same species from the bordering area of the district,” said Malkangiri DFO Pratap Kotapalli. Sharing more details, forest officials of Chitrakonda range said the softshell turtles weighing about 935 kg were seized from the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border late on Sunday night.
Acting on an intel, a team of Chitrakonda forest range led by range officer Balram Nayak and forester Niranjan Sarka laid a trap at Rajulkonda area bordering Andhra Pradesh. Soon they intercepted a pick-up van entering speedily into Odisha border and conducted a search leading to seizure of 489 softshell turtles. The turtles were packed in 35 sacks. Two or three of them were dead. He said the turtles will be released into the Balimela Dam.