A mobile court sentenced a wildlife trafficker to four months in jail after two endangered Great Hornbills (a rare bird) were rescued from Chandanaish upazila of Chittagong on Monday.
The convicted man is Md Mizanur Rahman, 47, son of Fajiar Rahman of Singhasan area of the Bera police station in Pabna district.
Rahman was arrested early Monday while attempting to smuggle two Great Hornbills via a Shyamoli Paribahan bus, near Gachhbaria College on the Chittagong-Cox's Bazar route, said Chandanaish police station Officer-in-Charge Anwar Hossain.
“We arrested Rahman acting on a tip-off,” said the OC, adding that the upazila Assistant Commissioner (Land) Zimran Mohammad Sayek convened a mobile court and sentenced Rahman to four months' imprisonment.
The OC further said that the two Great Hornbills were handed over to the Patiya range of the Forest Department.
Earlier, on Thursday night, police arrested Md Salim, an autorickshaw driver, and seized four Great Hornbills from him in the Gunagari area of Banshkhali upazila of Chittagong.
The Great Hornbill, a magnificent bird native to Southeast Asia, has been classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) since 2018.
