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Indian customs officers have arrested a passenger accused of smuggling 10 yellow anacondas hid in his checked-in bag.
The Customs Department at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, the capital of India’s southern state of Karnataka, stated that they had intercepted the passenger and that an investigation was underway. The passenger was flying in from Bangkok in Thailand.
“Wildlife trafficking will not be tolerated,” the officers stated.
India has been a part of the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of untamed fauna and flora) since 1976, and nonetheless stays among the many high 20 international locations for wildlife smuggling and among the many high 10 for wildlife trafficking by air, a report on Mongabay says.
“Due to its megadiverse nature (India has 8 per cent of the world’s wildlife), and dense human population (which makes tracing illegal goods very difficult once they have entered domestic markets), India serves as both, a source, as well as a transit country for illegal wildlife and wildlife products,” says the report.
Under the Customs Act of 1962, wildlife traffickers could be imprisoned for wherever between two years to seven years beneath related sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
In September 2023, officers recovered six Capuchin monkeys, 55 ball pythons in varied color variations, and 17 king cobras within the baggage of a passenger coming from Bangkok. The primates have been discovered useless, whereas the snakes have been nonetheless alive and subsequently deported to their nation of origin.
In an identical incident in August 2023, Bengaluru customs officers rescued 234 animals, together with pythons, chameleons, iguanas, turtles, alligators, and even a child kangaroo. The kangaroo, which was stuffed inside a plastic field, didn’t survive, and the passenger was arrested. In this incident too, the passenger was on his manner from Bangkok.
Thailand is a significant transit hub for unlawful wildlife smuggling resulting from its geographical location and well-connected transportation networks.
In March 2024, six Indian nationals have been arrested on the Bangkok airport after an endangered purple panda and 87 different unique animals and birds have been seized from their baggage in a significant wildlife trafficking bust.
