7 Exotic Wild Animals Rescued In Assam’s Cachar, 5 Smugglers Arrested

Assam News: The Assam police arrested five alleged wildlife smugglers and rescued seven exotic wild animals from their possession.

The wild exotic animals rescued on Sunday including a Panamanian white-faced capuchin, four black macaque, and two common opossums.

Source : Assam Police

Guwahati: The Assam police on Sunday arrested five alleged wildlife smugglers, including a woman, at the Lailapur Gate area in Southern Assam’s Cachar district, and rescued seven exotic wild animals from their possession. Acting on specific input, personnel from the Dholai police station intercepted a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), bearing a Mizoram registration number, along the Assam-Mizoram inter-state border. During a search of the vehicle, the police team recovered seven exotic wild animals including a Panamanian white-faced capuchin, four black macaque, and two common opossums.  

All the rescued animals were later handed over to the forest department, Dholai, in accordance with established procedures. The animals were later sent to the Assam State Zoo and Botanical Garden in Guwahati.

The Panamanian white-faced capuchin, also known as the Panamanian white-headed capuchin or the Central American white-faced capuchin, is a mid-sized monkey belonging to the cebidae family and is native to the rain forests of Central America. This breed of monkey is crucial for the maintenance of the ecology of the rainforests as they disperse seeds and pollen.

The black macaque, also known as the Sulawesi crested black macaque, is another breed of monkey, native to the Tangkoko reserve of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, while the common opossums, also known as the Southern or black-eared opossum or gamba, are a marsupial species that mostly lives in the woods between the northeast of Mexico and Bolivia.

Speaking to ABP Live, Cachar Superintendent of Police (SP), Numal Mahatta said, “We have arrested five persons, including a woman, in connection with smuggling of the exotic animals. All the accused are residents of Mizoram. During interrogation they revealed that the animals were brought from Myanmar through the Mizoram border and were to be further transported through Assam and Meghalaya and finally to a city in India. They have been produced before the court and we have sought their remand for further interrogation.”

“In the past few years it has been observed that exotic animals from across the international borders are being smuggled to mainland India through the northeastern states including Mizoram, Manipur and Meghalaya, and then make their way to their final destination through Assam. While sometimes the animals are rescued, on most of the occasions, these smuggled exotic animals go undetected,” renowned wildlife activist Bibhab Talukdar told ABP Live.   

“These animals are brought without any valid documents and come without any health screening thereby having a potential of spreading zoonotic diseases. As such, law enforcement agencies need to keep strict vigilance on the illegal trafficking of these exotic species. After being rescued, these animals should be put into quarantine to prevent the spread of any such disease to other animals or human beings,” Talukdar added.  

The smuggling of exotic animals through the northeastern states is not new. In the recent past, law enforcement agencies have arrested several wildlife smugglers and rescued hundreds of such species. These animals often make their way to India through the porous India-Myanmar borders.

On August 19 this year, six exotic palm cockatoos were rescued by the Assam police along the Assam-Mizoram border in Cachar district. However, no arrest was made as the smugglers managed to escape abandoning their vehicle and the animals on seeing the police patrolling team.

On October 15, 2022, as many as 138 exotic animals including 22 pythons, 55 crocodile hatchlings, 30 tortoises, 18 Sumatran water monitors, four serval cats, two marmosets, four flame bowerbirds and an albino wallaby were rescued by the Mizoram police and forest department officials in the hill state’s Champhai district bordering Myanmar. In September of the same year, 41 wild exotic animals, including reptiles and birds, were rescued from two luxury vehicles in Assam's Kamrup district.

The writer is a senior independent journalist covering the Northeast.

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