Yesterday the Kalimela forest department have had great success in sizing 330 live turtles from 20 bags near the MPV-65 village area under Malkangiri district. No one was arrested in this raid.
According to sources, the Kalimela forest officials received a tip-off that some live turtles were being illegally smuggled into the Kalimela area. On the orders of Kalimela Ranger Sushant Kumar Dalei, the department officials launched an investigation.
Later while searching they found 20 bags near a bush and after checking them, they found more than 330 live turtles. According to the forest officials, the market value of all the seized turtles is above 2 Lakh Rupees.
As per sources, the smugglers have already received the information that the forest officials were looking for them. That’s why they fled the scene putting behind all the bags. All the turtles were then taken to the forest office and are safe now.
Kalimela Ranger Shri Dalei said that after medical examination all the turtles will be sent to the Satiguda Dam. Forester Sibananda Lenka, Sushant Swain, Jayanata Nayak, Rudra Hantal, Suraj Das, Dinesh Rao, Mukesh Madkami etc. were involved in this raid.