Indian Police Rescue 6,000 Endangered Turtles From Horrific Fate in Illegal Wildlife Trade

The illegal wildlife trade is one of the most lucrative illicit trades on the planet. The sale and trade of exotic animals and their parts garners an enormous amount of profit annually, but sadly, this comes at a great cost to the animals. In the past 40 years alone, around 52 percent of the world’s wildlife has disappeared. Although factors like Climate change and habitat loss are contributing to this decline, the illegal wildlife trade arguably has the most immediate impact on animal populations.

Today we have some good news to share related to the illegal wildlife trade, however. In one of the biggest seizures in India’s wildlife history, over 6,000 freshwater turtles were rescued after a house was raided in Uttar Pradesh, a state in northern India.

The raid by UP Police Special Task Force on Tuesday found the turtles stuffed into sacks and also on the ground of the house. The poachers were planning on smuggling the turtles to Southeast Asia. Half of a truck was already filled and they planned to take the animals to the eastern city of Kolkata so they could be transported illegally to China, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Bangladesh.

Sadly, turtle meat is considered an aphrodisiac and the bones are powdered for use in traditional medicine and soups. But for these 6,000 plus turtles, this will luckily not be their fate. The turtles are currently at a makeshift sanctuary in the Turtle Survival Alliance’s local center. We are also thankful that the “kingpin” of this operation has been arrested, with more arrests possibly underway.  “We have recovered such a huge amount of turtles from one single location. We are investigating this further and looking at the involvement of more people, especially smuggling rings,”Arvind Chaturvedi, a senior police officer who led the raid, explained to NDTV.

This rescue is especially important considering freshwater turtles are in danger of extinction. Despite the fact that 80 percent of Asia’s freshwater turtle species are almost extinct, an estimated 28,300 freshwater turtles are trafficked every day. If nothing is done to protect this species and put an end to the illegal trade, we stand to lose these turtles forever.

Please help us end the illegal wildlife trade but sharing this post far and wide. Encourage everyone you know to learn more about the illegal wildlife trade. When the buying of animals stops, so will the killing.

Image Source: @upcoprahul/Twitter