Police in Mizoram on Saturday busted another racket of smugglers by recovering 140 animals and birds of exotic species that were allegedly being smuggled from neighbouring Myanmar.
Based on information, police in Mizoram's Champhai district along with sleuths of the excise and narcotics department seized the animals from three SUVs. Police also arrested three persons who were transporting the animals.
The rescued animals included 30 tortoises, 22 pythons, 18 Sumatran water monitors, 55 crocodiles (hatchlings), four flame bowerbirds, four serval cats, two monkeys, two marmoset monkeys, and one Albino wallaby. The exotic animals and birds along with the vehicles were handed over to the Superintendent, Custom Preventive Force, Champhai for further legal action, Mizoram police said.
The police suspect that the three arrested persons are part of an international network of smugglers who use the unfenced Indo-Myanmar border in Mizoram to transport animals and other items to other parts of India. On September 8 this year, police and forest personnel in Assam recovered 39 exotic animals and birds near Rangiya in Kamrup district, which were also smuggled from Myanmar via Mizoram.
There is another route through Moreh, a commercial town along the Indo-Myanmar border in Manipur. In July 2020, forest personnel in Assam seized a red kangaroo, six hyacinth macaws, and two capuchin monkeys from South Africa after they intercepted a truck near the state's border with Mizoram.
Published 15 October 2022, 13:46 IST