Officials nab three passengers with exotic animals at airport in southern India
by Surya PrakashThree passengers, carrying 18 exotic animals were intercepted by the revenue intelligence officers at the Kempegowda International Airport in southern India’s Karnataka.
This incident happened in Bengaluru on January 22.
#Watch: Officials nab three passengers with exotic animals at airport in Karnataka#Viral
Full Story👇https://t.co/ZyJY2sEdmG pic.twitter.com/1jWCbMXZPC
— Newslions (@newslions_live) January 28, 2023
Visuals showed the animals, which included snakes, in boxes. According to a report, the attempt at wildlife smuggling was foiled by the officials as they stopped the three passengers, including a woman at the airport upon their arrival from Bangkok. After their check-in bags were checked, the animals were found, out of which 14 were primates and four reptiles.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) then arrested the passengers and the recovered animals were handed to the Karnataka Forest Department. The animals were learnt to have been shifted to the Bannerghatta Biological Park.
What’s more is that an interrogation of the suspects led to the DRI team raiding a farmhouse on the outskirts of Bengaluru which led to the discovery of 139 wild creatures from 48 different species. Some of these recovered animals were nile monitor, green and yellow anaconda, red foot tortoise, veiled chameleon, racoon dog among others. These animals have been smuggled to the city on several occasions.
Two people at the farmhouse were also arrested and further investigation into this case is going on.