Indian Flapshell Turtles are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (Representative Image) | Photo Credit: BCCL

Kolkata: In a series of back to back raids, officials in West Bengal managed to seize over 1,700 Indian Flapshell turtles since January 21. Protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, these endangered species were being smuggled all the way from Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh and into Bengal where their meat is considered a delicacy.

On Tuesday, officers with the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (Eastern Region) of the central ministry of environment, forest and climate change along with West Bengal forest department personnel intercepted a truck in the North 24 Parganas district. Inside that truck were 1,231 live and dead Indian Flapshell turtles.

Fatehpur: Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force and forest officials seized 747 tortoises, two people arrested pic.twitter.com/QJQAeCeRV3 — ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) December 22, 2018

Deputy director of WCCB, eastern region, Agni Mitra told Hindustan Times that the traffickers had concealed the turtles under fishes. Andhra Pradesh regularly exports fishes to West Bengal and other states. Mitra also said that the driver of the truck who has been identified as one Sourav Das has been arrested.

One day before, state forest department officials intercepted a white sedan in East Burdwan district with a Delhi registration number. They soon discovered 500 turtles inside the car and found out that the endangered reptiles were being smuggled from Uttar Pradesh. The raid on Tuesday was the fourth seizure of endangered freshwater turtles in the state of West Bengal since October of 2018. Earlier this month, over 600 flapshell turtles were seized at the Durgapur railway station in West Bengal by officials with the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Four people were arrested in this regard under relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

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