Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Assam forest department personnel on Tuesday seized several wild animals including a kangaroo, six macaws, two monkeys and three tortoises from smugglers in Silchar.
The forest authorities disclosed that a truck, coming from Mizoram, was intercepted by its personnel at around 11:30 pm on July 28 from which they rescued a red Kangaroo, six Hyacinth Macaws, three Aldabra Giant Tortoises and two Capuchin Monkeys.
“It’s very uncommon to rescue a Kangaroo here. It’s alarming as well. I was shocked how they (smugglers) could even think of transporting a Kangaroo. It is a big thing,” Sunnydeo Choudhary, DFO of Cachar Forest Division, told Outlook on Wednesday morning.
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Not just the Kangaroo, the other seized species are also rare in this part of the country.
Tortoises rescued by forest authorities.
Two persons named Narsimha Reddy and Navnath Tukaram Daigude have been detained. During the course of interrogation, they revealed that the consignment was headed to Guwahati.
The forest officials have taken judicial remand of the duo for further interrogation.
“It is a very serious thing. We can’t leave them. It is believed that the animals have come from Mizoram. But the origin is not from Mizoram. It has come from somewhere else. So, we need to find out. We are also verifying their mobile numbers to ascertain where they were going,” Choudhury added.
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He also said that a pair of Hyacinth Macaw is sold at around Rs 20 lakh.
The forest personnel were doing a routine check of trucks passing through Lailapur in Cachar district to detect illegal timber.
Rescued monkeys.
However, one of the personnel detected obnoxious odours emanating from a truck. On being questioned, the driver replied that it was nothing but foul smell from some rotten fruits. Not convinced with the trucker's reply, the forest personnel searched the vehicle and found the exotic animals packed in plastic and carton boxes.
Now, the animals are being sent to the Assam State Zoo in Guwahati.
Kangaroos are indigenous to Australia. The Capuchin Monkeys are the natives of Central America and South America. Aldabra Giant Tortoise, one of the largest species in the world, has been classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The Hyacinth Macaw is a parrot native to central and eastern South America and is also vulnerable.
