Malkangiri/Kalimela: Even as turtle smuggling is flourishing in the fringe areas of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, forest officials got a major breakthrough by seizing 1,416 turtles worth about Rs 3 lakh at a village in Kalimela block of Malkangiri district Sunday.
Three persons, including a trader from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, were arrested on the charges of smuggling the freshwater turtles from the neighbouring state.
It was learnt that a large number of the reptiles were brought from Andhra Pradesh for sale during festivities on the eve of New Year Day.
Following a directive from Malkangiri divisional forest officer (DFO) Dr Samrat Gouda, a team of forest officials chased a pick-up van carrying the reptiles at Hatapada near MV-65. The turtles were kept in plastic trays. The van bearing Andhra Pradesh registration number was also seized.
Some traders from Kakinada have been selling the reptiles in this area for a long time. Turtle meat is sold in the local markets for anything between Rs 200 to Rs 250 per kg.
DFO Gouda, Kalimela forest ranger Ramchandra Madkami, forester Suresh Chandra Swain and Padia forester Anil Kumar Bala were present during the seizure.
All the turtles were later released in river Saberi in Motu. The arrested persons were identified as B Ramkrishna of Kakinada, Kalidas Saha of MV-82 and Sukumar Tarafdar of MV-65, forest officials said, adding they were booked under various sections of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and further investigation was on.
Earlier, over 350 rare species of turtles, also smuggled from Andhra Pradesh, had been seized in Chitrakonda area of Malkangiri district in June, 2017. PNN