Man held with 4,200 turtles
The Department of Forest and Rapid Action Battalion in a joint drive recovered 4,200 turtles from a house in the city's Uttara area yesterday.
One Hafiz Uddin was also arrested from the house during the raid.
Salma Aktar, inspector of Wildlife Crime Control Unit of the forest department, said the turtles were brought to Dhaka for smuggling. Those were collected from across the country and from India.
Acting on a tip-off, the forest department and Rab-1 raided the house in Uttara's Dakkhin Khan area around 7:00pm and recovered the turtles and arrested Hafiz.
Later, a mobile court sentenced the arrestee to one year in prison and fined him Tk 50,000.
The seized turtles are of four species -- 1,800 pieces are Tricarinate hill turtle, 1,600 Indian pond turtle, 500 star turtle and 300 Indian roofed turtle, Salma said.
She said star turtles are found only in India and the rest in both countries.
The turtles will be sent to the Gazipur Safari Park. They would be released as per court directives, Salma added.
According to Bangladesh Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, 2012, trading, carrying, transporting and hunting of turtles are punishable offence.
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