By IANS,
Lucknow : As many as 545 rare species of tortoises, all alive, were recovered from three men arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj district, the police said Monday.
“The three men were arrested today (Monday) along the banks of the Ganga river while they were carrying the tortoises in a Tata Sumo in Manimau town of Kannauj, about 250 km from Lucknow,” police inspector Karna Singh told IANS by telephone.
The arrested men, who are being jointly interrogated by the police and officials of the forest department, have confessed that the tortoises were being taken to Kolkata, he added.
The police inspector said they were routinely smuggling the tortoises over the past five years.
All the tortoises recovered are listed under the Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), according to forest officials.