Overseas Racket In Wild Life Trafficking

Barak Valley for its strategic location bordering Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya and the district of Dima Hasao has been infamous for it being a corridor of extremists, smugglers, illegal transportation of Burmese betel nuts, black diamond and now trafficking in wild life with overseas connections.

- Jyotilal Chowdhury

End of July was witness to the great achievement of Cachar forest division and police. It was close to midnight of July 29 when a truck with caged animals and exotic birds after crossing the Mizoram check gate of Vereingte, also called IPL post, moved towards the Lyllapur police outpost of Cachar in Assam, a few yards away in the eerie silence of night. The alert and vigilant police team led by Apan Chandra Paul in charge Lyllapur detained the truck, signalled the drivers, Narsimha Reddy and Navnath Tukaram, to park the vehicle aside the NH 54. A foul smell from the truck aroused their suspicion about the consignments. The search with flaming torch showed under the cartons of rotting seasonal fruits were camouflaged one Kangaroo, 6 macaw parrots, three tortoises and two monkeys, all caged in wooden boxes.

Even as the Cachar police was all excited and in exult, forest officials came forward to claim before the media that it was not the police, but their team led by Range Officer of Dholai forest division and Beat Officer of Lyllapur and forest protection force personnel who first intercepted the truck and then took the help of police to seize the caged animals and birds. Parimal Suklabaidya, Forest Minister, who comes from Dholai constituency, on his FaceBook page applauded the officials and guards of his department for the success. In this claim and counterclaim of seizure, media, print and electronic, flashing the news, however, maintained the balance, calling it joint operation.