Mizoram: 31 smuggled exotic animals rescued, six arrested for wildlife trafficking

Forest department officials and Assam Rifles personnel launched a joint operation in Mizoram's Champhai district near the Myanmar border, leading to the rescue of thirty-one different species of exotic animals suspected to be smuggled from a neighbouring country.

Six people, including a Myanmar national, were arrested from Zokhawthar village in the district on Wednesday for trafficking exotic animals worth Rs 1.3 crore in the international market, on official said on April 3.

The rescued animals included 27 African spurred tortoises, 3 Patagonian maras and an Albino Burmese python.

The six accused were sent to a district jail in Champhai as per the district judicial magistrate’s order, the official said.

Earlier on March 26, officials of the Khawzawl district wildlife division arrested a poacher for allegedly shooting a barking deer and a rufous throated partridge in the forest.