Prompt action by Custom officials at Guwahati prevent smuggling of tokay geckos

Prompt action by Customs sleuths along with the officials of Wildlife Crime Control Bureau helped to save six tokay geckos that were suspected to have been brought from somewhere in south India to smuggle them to China. The lizards were found inside an unclaimed bag at the ISBT. The tokay gecko is a lizard species that is in great demand in China for its reported medicinal values.
This is as reported in telegraphindia.com dated 5 April 2016.

The officials of the Customs department has indicated that the geckos were recovered during a search that had been launched based on prior source of information. The information was that two individuals, who appear to be from south India, had brought the reptiles by train to Guwahati with the intention to smuggle them out to China via Dimapur-Moreh-Myanmar route. The duo was to have boarded a Dimapur-bound bus from the ISBT last night and accordingly a joint search was launched by a team of customs and bureau officials. The geckos were found inside an unclaimed bag but the culprits had managed to escape.
It seems gecko smuggling through this route is quite common and their have been inputs about regular smuggling of geckos from south India to China through the Northeast. The reason is that there is a high demand for tokay geckos in China as they are used in making traditional Chinese medicines rumored to cure several diseases, including HIV/AIDS. One gecko can fetch several lakhs of rupees.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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