Dead snakes, turtles worth Rs 5 lakh seized from courier office in Agra

Vijay Upadhyay

Agra. The usual boring routine of sorting parcels at a courier office in Agra broke into commotion on Wednesday evening when a large bag that had just arrived from Chennai broke open and spilled hundreds of dried carcasses of snakes and turtles on the floor.

Alarmed by the recovery of such a huge consignment of rare animals at the courier company, the Agra wildlife authorities immediately raided the courier office and arrested five employees including Ajat Oliver, the manager of the courier company's Agra branch. Raids are underway at locations in Chennai from where this consignment had been booked by 28-year-old Brajesh.

Investigating into the recipient of this 'deadly' consignment, the wildlife authorities also came across with Braj Scientific Laboratories, an Agra-based entity, which was supposed to receive this consignment.

Talking to The Pioneer, Agra Divisional Forest Officer SP Yadav said that the consignment which had been booked by Saidapet of Chennai- based Royal Biological Products to be delivered to Braj Scientific Laboratories in Agra, apparently for research, was discovered by a courier company employee who found some dead snakes poking out of a hole in the 40 kg sack that contained these animals.

When he tried to pry out one snake out of the sack, the entire sack broke loose and the consignment containing a total of 102 dead Indian cobras and 97 endangered olive ridley turtles was spilled out on the floor. Some local traders who came to know about the consignment informed the wildlife authorities and it was confiscated.

According to Yadav, Braj Scientific Laboratories was only acting as an intermediary in this illegal trade of wild animals. While it was suspected that this consignment of dried snakes and turtles was meant for export to East Asian countries where these dead animals could be used in Chinese traditional medicine.

He said that a raid at the house of the owner of Braj Scientific Laboratories revealed a large stock of rare animals like sea horses, crabs, scorpions etc, all preserved intact in huge drums and other containers. The owner, who is still absconding, claimed that these were meant for scientific research.

Yadav said that the transit of any live or dead wild animals through courier or any other mode and their storage was prohibited under law unless the consignee had a permit from the wildlife warden authenticating this. In this case, no such permit had ostensibly been obtained and no 'manifest' listing the number and type of animals was accompanied with the consignment, which clearly indicated that these animals had been captured and killed illegally and were meant to be exported to East Asia.

He said that the consignment had been booked at Chennai-based Professional Couriers by a 28-year-old youth, Brajesh who is a resident of Saidapet, Chennai and possibly the kingpin in this entire operation that could have its links spread all across the Asian continent, especially China and the rest of the South-East Asia.

According to Yadav, though the dead animals had no legal commercial value, they could cost as much as $50 for a dead turtle and $100 for an Indian Cobra in the international black market and this consignment alone had an approximate value of Rs 5 lakh.

He said that the police was still trying to track down the owners of both Royal Biological Products and Braj Scientific Laboratories. Both are absconding but in constant touch with the wildlife authorities through their mobile phones claiming that they are innocent and these animals were only meant for scientific research.