Guwahati:
The police in Assam’s Dibrugarh seized 11 rare tokay gecko lizards and arrested three smugglers on Friday. The export of tokay geckos is banned as they are listed as highly endangered under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.
If found guilty, there is a maximum punishment of seven years of rigorous imprisonment.
In India, these species are found only in a few pockets in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, but they are highly demanded in the grey market in Southeast Asia.
The arrested persons were identified as Debashis Dohutia (34), Manash Dohutia (28) and Dipankar Gharphalia (40 ).
The police said they acted on a tip-off regarding the smuggling of the tokay gecko lizards in Dibrugarh and formed a team of Special Task Force (STF).
“Accordingly, the STF team set up a trap at the Mohanbari area with the help of Dibrugarh district police and close operational and intelligence support from the Wildlife Justice Commission, South Asia Office. The team spotted three suspected smugglers at Sun Feast Dhaba at Mohanbari Tiniali. Two of them came in a white car bearing registration number AS-23W-5506, and one came in a motorcycle bearing registration number AS-06AF-0276,” the Assam Police said in a statement.
“The three persons assembled and entered into the Sun Feast dhaba. After some time, one among them who was driving the aforesaid car came out, took out a red coloured backpack bag from the car and entered into the dhaba. At that moment, the STF team rushed to the dhaba and apprehended three persons who were found with the red coloured backpack,” the statement added.
During interrogation, they revealed that they collected and brought the tokay geckos from Arunachal Pradesh and finalised a deal to sell each of them for Rs 1 lakh, the police said.
