Two held in Siliguri for smuggling in 3 tokay geckos from B’desh
Kolkata: The Baikunthapur division of West Bengal forest department on Monday rescued three smuggled tokay geckos from Siliguri and arrested two persons in connection with the case.
It has been learnt that the three tokay geckos were smuggled in from Bangladesh and were meant for selling in the grey market.
Tokay geckos were included in Schedule IV of India’s Wildlife (Protection) Act in 2014, which prohibits poaching and illegal trade of the listed species.
Forest department sources said that the officials of Baikunthapur division were tipped off by their sources that some wildlife smugglers were trying to sell these tokay geckos in the grey market.
“Forest department officials posing as prospective buyers then established contacts with them and a deal was fixed at Rs 9,00,000. Accordingly, they were asked to come to a scheduled place, where our officials were waiting,” a forest department official said.
Three smugglers came to the spot on a motorcycle. While the forest department officials nabbed two of them, the third one who was driving the two-wheeler escaped. The three tokay geckos were recovered from a secret cotton chamber in their socks.
The arrested persons have been identified as M.A. Sheikh from Jalpaiguri and Amin Sheikh from Cooch Behar.
Tokay geckos are in high demand for use in aphrodisiac medicines.
According to a report by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, poaching and illegal trade of tokay geckos rose sharply in 2009 as their tongue and internal organs were targeted as a potential unproven remedy for HIV and cancer.
