On Friday night in Khulna, 494 flapshell turtles were rescued from poachers who were attempting to smuggle them to India.
A team of Wildlife Crime Control Unit working with a Rapid Action Battalion Team carried out the operation near Khulna's Zero Point area.
The poachers Masum Molla, 43, Prodip Kumar Baroi, 45, and Shubhodeb Roy, 30, all residents of Agailjhara upazila, were trying to sneak the turtles away in a pickup van.
The flapshell turtle weighs between 500grams to 5kilograms and has a life expectancy of 300-400 years
WCCU, BFDKhulna Divisional Forest Officer (Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation) Madinul Ahsan said the turtles were kept in eight drums and have been collected from several waterbodies in Barisal.
The poachers and their captors on Friday night in Khulna
WCCU, BFD "Those turtles are on the list of extinct species," he added. "They are being sent to Bhawal National Park in Dhaka."
The poachers have been sent to prison after a case was filed under the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act in this connection.
The flapshell turtle weighs between 500grams to 5kilograms and has a life expectancy of 300-400 years WCCU, BFDKhulna Divisional Forest Officer (Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation) Madinul Ahsan said the turtles were kept in eight drums and have been collected from several waterbodies in Barisal.
The poachers and their captors on Friday night in Khulna WCCU, BFD "Those turtles are on the list of extinct species," he added. "They are being sent to Bhawal National Park in Dhaka."
The poachers have been sent to prison after a case was filed under the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act in this connection.