Sleuths of multiple government agencies seized 138 exotic wild mammals, reptiles and birds from Mizoram’s Champhai district bordering Myanmar on October 15.
This is the largest haul of such trafficked animals in the last few years.
An official in State capital Aizawl said a joint team of the Champhai district police, Excise and Narcotics departments seized the animals from three SUVs intercepted on a highway leading to southern Assam.
“We suspect the animals were smuggled in from Myanmar. We have arrested three persons who were transporting the animals in constricting cages,” the official said.
The three, identified as Lalemruata, 38; Tinkhuma, 38; and E. Lalmuanpuia, 29, were being interrogated for more information about the exotic animal smuggling network.
A serval cat seized in Mizoram’s Champhai district. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The rescued animals include 55 crocodile hatchlings, 30 tortoises, 22 pythons, 18 Sumatran water monitors, four flame bowerbirds endemic to the rainforests of New Guinea, four serval cats from Africa, two marmosets native to South America and an albino wallaby.
“The animals have been handed over to the Superintendent of the Customs Preventive Force in Champhai for further legal action,” the official said.
This is the second major seizure of exotic animals in the northeast within a month.
In September, 41 exotic wild animals, birds and reptiles smuggled from Myanmar through Mizoram were rescued from two high-end vehicles at Rangiya in Assam’s Kamrup district. These animals, including 19 different types of primates, 18 tortoises and two wallabies, were to have been delivered to a dealer in West Bengal’s Siliguri.
Other than exotic animals, Mizoram has been a conduit for the smuggling of drugs, small arms, betel nuts and human hair.
