Agra: A team of UP special task force of Agra and Lucknow have arrested two international contraband smugglers with 23 endangered red crowned roof turtles. The international market price of the turtles in Southeast Asian countries is estimated to be over Rs 1,00,000.The accused have been identified as Agra resident Ajay Singh and Mainpuri district resident Deependra Singh. The men were caught on a train while they were en route to Tamil Nadu to deliver the turtles to an agent.Speaking to TOI, Agra STF inspector Shyam Sunder said, “They had kept the turtles in a trolley bag and were travelling in AC-III tier coach of GT Express. The men had to de-board at Gudur junction, 137 km away from Chennai, to deliver the turtles to local agents, who would have then smuggled them to Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong via Bangladesh.”Additional superintendent of police and in charge of UP STF Wildlife branch, Aravind Chaturvedi said, “We came to know about the men three months ago when we recovered nearly 7,000 turtles from Amethi district. Since then Singh and his aide were being monitored.”According to police, Singh was the kingpin of the turtle smuggling business in Agra. He used to offer Rs 4,000 to local fisher men to catch turtles from Chambal and Yamuna river and then sold it to Chennai and Kolkata-based agents at a cost of Rs 30,000 per turtle.STF officials claim that turtles, like the red-crowned, soft shell, are in demand for their flesh in South-eastern Asian countries. The International Union for Conservation of Nature mentions red-crowned roofed turtle as ‘critically endangered due to continuing disappearance over much of its range’. According to a US-based NGP Turtle Survival Alliance, there are hardly 500 red-crowned roof turtles in Chambal.

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