Two people from the Udham Singh Nagar district were arrested by the Uttarakhand police on Tuesday, and 293 turtles were found in their possession. A third suspect managed to elude capture. According to sources, the police have filed a formal complaint against all three accused under the pertinent provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972.
“We had received a tip-off about the smuggling of turtles in Udham Singh Nagar. We formed a team that conducted checking in Dineshpur area. The police stopped the vehicle and arrested two people, and recovered 293 live turtles kept in six sacks. The third smuggler succeeded in escaping from the spot,” Manjunath TC, senior superintendent of police (SSP) Udham Singh Nagar district said.
The smuggled turtles weighed around 284 kilograms, he said.
The accused have been identified as Mithun Mandal, a resident of Dineshpur and Prasenjit Mandal, a resident of Transit Camp in US Nagar. “The smuggler who escaped has been identified as Raju Majumdar resident of Udham Singh Nagar,” he said.
According to a preliminary inquiry, traffickers used to transport turtles from Etah and Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh and sell them for about 10,000 per kg in the Dineshpur neighbourhood of US Nagar.
To avoid being caught by checkpoint security, the accused used high-end automobiles to smuggle the turtles.
“They will be further questioned whether they are part of any larger wildlife smuggling gang,” Manjunath said.
Such an incidence has occurred before in the state. In places like Dineshpur, Transit camp, and Shaktifarm, turtle meat is murdered for human consumption.
The US Nagar cops arrested a man on August 14 after discovering 10 turtles in Dineshpur that were being transported in a jute bag for sale. On August 4, the Haldwani-Sitarganj route was the scene of two turtle smuggling arrests by the state forest department, who also managed to save four of the turtles. 20 turtles were found on August 1 by the forest department near US Nagar, however the smugglers fled the scene after abandoning the creatures on the road while being checked.
Forest officers apprehended two persons and saved 53 turtles in the district in September of last year. In March of last year, authorities in the district’s Kichha neighbourhood arrested two women while rescuing 16 turtles. The police in Dineshpur in December 2020 found 40 turtles that belonged to a man. Police found 25 turtles that were stashed away in a bathroom in a home in March 2020.