Smugglers with tortoise bone have been arrested by the police. Smuggling of tortoises to Khasa does not have a long history, a source said. “It’s only been a few months since smugglers started selling tortoises in the Khasa market. These reptiles have become the new smuggling item of late while the authorities are focused on curbing smuggling of red sandalwood,” the source said. It is learnt that many former red sandalwood smugglers have switched over to tortoise smuggling. The authorities, meanwhile, are clueless on the matter. Though the tortoises smuggled from Nepal are openly sold in Khasa, the security check posts along the Araniko Highway have not come across any case of tortoise smuggling so far. Every week around 60 tortoises captured from the wetlands of Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve and other parts of the Tarai region are smuggled to Khasa through the Araniko Highway and other secondary roads leading to this Chinese town.
