BANGLADESH

The forest department on Friday seized 155 turtles smuggled in fruit baskets to Bangladesh through Benapole border from India.

Chief forest conservator (wildlife and nature conservation circle) Tapan Kumar Dey told bdnews24.com 87 of the recovered turtles are Three Keeled Tortoise (Melanochelys tricarinata) and the rest 68 are Snail-eating Turtle (Melanochelys trijuga).

He said the baskets with the turtles were smuggled into Bangladesh on Thursday. Then they were taken to Continental Courier Service branch office at Jessore's Jum Jum area in a covered-van.

Border Guard Bangladesh's (BGB) Jessore Battalion and forest department officials jointly raided the courier service office upon information on Friday morning and found the rare turtles in three baskets.

But the smugglers managed to flee the scene right before the raid, Dey said.

He said, "The turtles have been brought to forest department building (Ban Bhaban) in Dhaka immediately from Jessore."

Earlier on Apr 17, another consignment of smuggled turtles was apprehended at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. Forest department officials suspect that both operations are work of the same smuggling syndicate.

Dey said, "They smuggle these rare turtles to Bangladesh from India and then send them to Thailand, Taiwan or China."

He also added that these Shila Turtle and Kali Kaitta species are also on the list of 'endangered' species in Bangladesh. They are mostly seen in adjacent hill tract areas of the rivers Ganges and Bhramaputtra.