SOG Probes Whether Accused Are Linked To Int’l Smugglers

Jaipur: The special operations group (SOG) of state police on Tuesday busted a racket involved in smuggling of turtle shells and arrested two persons. The duo were held while they were trying to sell 65 shells to some buyers. The estimated price of these shells is nearly Rs 50 lakh in the international market. The SOG got a tip-off in August that some people belonging to the Kalbelia tribe in Kota are planning to catch and sell turtles once the monsoon recedes. Accordingly, the SOG formed a team and sent decoys to the smugglers, said sources.

A total of 192 star tortoises that were seized while being smuggled out of the country have found a new home in the Sathyamangalam forests.

A total of 497 tortoises were confiscated in different incidents and handed over to Arignar Anna Zoological Park at Vandalur near Chennai for rehabilitation. The Forest Department, in association with the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), carried out the rehabilitation process at the zoological park for a few months.

AHMEDABAD: The illegal trade of turtles in markets of Ahmedabad continues to mushroom unabated. Last year, the trend was to bring home the Red-eared slider of Singapore, this year it is the native Indian roofed turtle or Pangshura tecta.

The turtle, endemic to the Ganges, is terrestrial and lives in fresh water. The reptile goes on to live for 200 years, if reared in its natural habitat, does not survive for more than 20 days after it's bought from pet shops in the city.

Many species in some of the most remote vestiges of Britain's overseas territories face extinction unless a government plan to protect them sets out clearly defined preservation targets, according

The Okinawa Defense Bureau's yet-to-be disclosed 2010-2011 environmental impact report on the planned relocation site for the Futenma military base contradicts the 2007-2008 report used as the gove

LUCKNOW: Man-animal conflicts are common in various parts of the country. In India, wild elephants probably kill far more people than tiger, leopard or lion.

The Environmental Protection Authority has recommended a $35 billion gas hub in the Kimberley be approved with strict conditions.

Thousands of leatherback turtle eggs and hatchlings have been crushed by bulldozers on Trinidad's northern coast, conservationists say.

India, Nepal, BanglaDesh and Paksitan have agreed to develop a joint institutional mechanism to protect the growing threat to wildlife in their region. This joint mechanism has been developed because presently, wildlife is being poached in one country, stockpiled in another and then traded across the South Asia region.

This lucrative trade has been pegged at $20 billion annually and is second to narcotics, a latest Interpol report has pointed out.

The State Government has decided to extend public distribution system (PDS) doles to over 5,000 families of traditional marine fishermen living along the Paradip coast.