206 live ‘star tortoises’ seized at BIA

• The tortoises were found wrapped in cloth sacks and then packed into six boxes and tagged as “Dried Sea Food”

By Chathuranga Pradeep Samarawickrama

The Sri Lanka Customs has seized some 206 live ‘star tortoises’ at the Katunayake International Airport while being attempted to smuggle out to Malaysia last morning.   

Customs Deputy Director (Legal) and media spokesman Sudatta Silva said the raid was made at the Air Cargo Exports Terminal of the Airport.   

The tortoises were found wrapped in cloth sacks and then packed into six boxes and tagged as “Dried Sea Foods”, he said.   Sri Lankan Star Tortoises is the same species (Geochelone elegans) as that found in India and Pakistan, but have a specific geographic identity.    It is one of the most beautiful tortoise species found in the world and due to the same reason they have been highly sought-after in the illegal pet trade, especially in the South East Asian countries.    As a result, the species have become threatened with extinction and included in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of fauna and also in the Appendix I of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).   

According to the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, attempt to export any mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, coral or invertebrate, eggs, feathers, or plumage of any bird, the horns, antlers, skin or hide of any mammal or reptile or any part of any mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, coral or invertebrate without the permission of the Director General of Wildlife Conservation Department is an offence and also simultaneously violates the Customs Ordinance.