Hundreds of smuggled tortoises found abandoned on road in Telangana

On Sunday, in a rare sight that greeted the locals of Thimmampet and Pogalapalli villages of Mulakapally mandal in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district on the border of Telangana and Andhra, hundreds of tortoises were found beside a main road. The tortoises were seen moving around after unidentified smugglers reportedly unloaded them from a vehicle. As news of the tortoises’ strange presence spread in the villages, locals including children picked them up and took them away. According to police and forest officials, at around 8 am on Sunday, a vehicle  transporting the tortoises illegally from Andhra's Krishna district, unloaded the tortoises onto the road. Speaking to TNM, Bhadradri-Kothagudem district SP Sunil Dutt said, "The matter came to our notice about the presence of tortoises beside the road and some people taking them away. We suspect that they were being smuggled from Andhra, and the forest officials have rescued the remaining tortoises." SP further added, "The smugglers may have noticed the presence of the police patrol team and unloaded the tortoises right beside the road." According to officials, the matter will be investigated by both forest and police department officials. All of the reptiles were soft-shell tortoises. Mulakapalli Forest Range Officer, T Srinivas Rao said, "Soon after receiving information about the tortoises beside the road, we rushed to the spot. While we managed to rescue at least 26 of them, 14 were found dead. Since there are no reports of such tortoises being found in this region, we suspect they were being smuggled in vehicles that are usually used to transport fish from Andhra." He further added, "We are not sure of the number of tortoises that were unloaded at the specific place. An inquiry is underway in the villages among the locals, to ascertain how many (tortoises) were lifted." The rescued tortoises have been released in Kinnerasani river. Earlier in February, as many as 1,600 Indian soft-shell tortoises that were being smuggled to West Bengal and Odisha from Kaikaluru of neighbouring Krishna district in Andhra, were rescued. According to Andhra forest officials, there is a network of smugglers which is illegally transporting the tortoises to other states. According to India's Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, soft-shell tortoises fall under Schedule 1 of the Act, under which they are considered as most endangered species. Read: 1,600 softshell tortoises rescued from smugglers in Andhra