Seven black primates were rescued from smugglers in Assam’s Hailakandi district on Monday night, and police arrested two people after chasing them for more than 10 kilometres when they tried to flee.
Santanu Das, officer in charge of Hailakandi’s Ramnathpur outpost, stated that the vehicle was coming.
‘At around 8:30 pm on Monday, they reached our checkpost and we noticed some boxes inside the vehicle. We asked them to show the boxes but the driver tried to flee. We chased almost 10 kilometres to catch them,’ he said.
Das stated that both of the arrested people are drivers. Das stated that a case has been filed against them and that court proceedings are underway.
According to Hailakandi divisional forest officer Akhil Dutta, the rescued animals are endangered species of apes, not Indian natives.
‘They were smuggled from Myanmar through Mizoram and the consignment was going towards Meghalaya… We are sending them to Guwahati,’ he said.
According to Dutta, they attempted to identify the animals but they were boxed in such a way that only specialists could open them.
‘We can’t take the risk of opening the boxes because the apes could run away. We can’t harm them because of our curiosity. In the Guwahati Zoo, specialists will identify them,’ he said.
Two baby orangutans, suspected of being smuggled from Indonesia, were rescued in Cachar in September of this year. According to SP Numal Mahatta, international rackets are involved in smuggling animals and using Indian land to transport these animals to international markets.
‘The consignments come from countries like Indonesia and Myanmar. They use a route through Myanmar and India to take the rare species to international markets. The price of each animal goes up to Rs 40 crore,’ Mahatta said.
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