Two held with 489 softshell turtles weighing a tonne

MALKANGIRI: In a major crackdown, forest officials seized 489 Indian softshell turtles weighing around a tonne and arrested two persons in this connection.

The accused Prasanjit Gharami and Sandeep Bepari are natives of MV-96 within Kalimela police limits, said officials of Malkangiri forest division. Preliminary investigation suggests the turtles were being smuggled to MV-79 and MV-72 from Narsinghpatnam of Andhra Pradesh for their meat. “This is the second major seizure of the protected species within a month.

In the previous seizure carried out around three weeks back, we had seized around 460 turtles of the same species from the bordering area of the district,” said Malkangiri DFO Pratap Kotapalli. Sharing more details, forest officials of Chitrakonda range said the softshell turtles weighing about 935 kg were seized from the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border late on Sunday night.