CHENNAI: Indian investigators have linked Tamil Nadu’s star tortoise smugglers to Southeast Asia’s largest turtle smuggling syndicate ‘Ninja Turtle Gang’ which faced a crackdown from Malaysian wildlife authorities last month.
The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) has alerted multiple enforcement agencies like Customs, Railway Protection Force (RPF), Government Railway Police (GRP), and forest department about the link after nearly 2,000 star tortoises and other species of turtles meant to be smuggled to Malaysia were seized in five separate cases over the last one month in TN.
Three of these smuggling attempts were thwarted by the Customs at Chennai international airport. In the other two cases, reptiles were rescued from a house in Kolathur in Chennai and at a bus stop in Pudukkottai.
Malaysian authorities had arrested six members — four Malaysians and two Cambodians — of the ‘Ninja Turtle Gang’ and rescued 200 turtles and tortoises from a house in Kuala Lumpur in July. The gang is an international crime ring involved in smuggling of reptiles from various countries including India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka to meet the demands of the financially lucrative pet traders in Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia and Thailand.
Sources said the increase in instances of Indian tortoises being smuggled to Malaysia is possibly to meet the demand in these countries. Another reason for the current jump in tortoise smuggling is that the southwest monsoon (June-September) season is the breeding period for these animals.
Customs to tighten vigil during tortoises’ breeding season
The Indian star tortoise and other animals such as Tricarinate hill turtle, Brahminy river turtle and black pond terrapin are protected species under Indian and international wildlife laws which prohibit their trade.
They are sought-after in Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries either as pets or for their meat, sources said.
Sources said that the international network connected with Indian smugglers is a well-oiled machinery. The network engages local villagers to harvest these reptiles from their habitat in the scrub jungles of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
The animals are then transported by middlemen via trains or buses to important cities like Chennai, Tiruchy, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Cochin which have good air connectivity to Malaysia. Sources said that only unreserved compartments or sleeper class coaches are used by the middlemen so that they can merge with the crowd and escape police’s attention.
The reptiles are later handed over to another group, which stores them in a warehouse, like the Kolathur house raided on August 11.
They are then packed in suitcases concealed with chocolate wrappers, clothes and adult diapers and sent with trained carriers to Malaysia via flights. The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) has asked customs officials to tighten their vigil at these airports as the southwest monsoon period (June-October) is the breeding season of star tortoises in their natural habitat and the chances of them being harvested for smuggling to Malaysia is high during the period.
Sources said RPF, GRP and TN forest officials have also been sounded an alert as these tortoises are sent via trains and buses from villages near forests to the cities. On July 16, TN police had found an abandoned bag containing 97 star tortoises near the Pudukotai bus stand, which was meant for trafficking to Malaysia via Tiruchy airport.