Two flyers arrested for smuggling exotic species

Mumbai: In two separate cases, airport customs Zone-III seized a cache of smuggled exotic wildlife, both live and dead, and arrested two passengers flying from Bangkok on July 10 and 11. The first passenger intercepted, had a cream-coloured trolley containing wildlife species including three meerkats — two alive and one dead, along with a Great Billed Parrot. In the second case, officials found a green-coloured trolley bag which concealed two Sumatran Striped Rabbits, a dead Great Billed Parrot, and an Indochinese Box Turtle. The protected and endangered species were immediately taken into custody under the Wildlife Protection Act. Legal proceedings have been initiated for the arrested individuals. — Ahmed Ali