A team of Railway Protection Force (RPF) on Thursday night seized 46 Indian flapshell turtles from a sleeper coach of Howrah-Jodhpur Express (12308) at Dhanbad station and arrested a 25-year-old woman smuggler.

All the turtles were found alive and were later handed over to the Dhanbad district forest department.

The forest department officials have kept all the turtles at a cool and swampy place in the forest colony to help them stabilise. Later, they will be released into Maithon and Panchet lakes.

The arrested woman, identified as Arti Kumari, a resident of Jagdishpur area of Amethi district in Uttar Pradesh, have been sent to jail after interrogation.

“The Indian flapshell turtle is a protected species under Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. We will take proper action in this regard after carrying out a thorough investigation,” district forest officer Vimal Lakra said.

Dhanbad forest ranger Ram Balak Prasad said the consignment of 46 turtles was loaded in the bogie from Varanasi Cantonment station and was meant to be smuggled to Howrah in Bengal. “The woman’s brother had also boarded the train, but got off somewhere between Varanasi and Dhanbad,” he said.

Prasad said they had information about a smuggling racket operating from Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

“We are planning to send a team to Sultanpur and other districts of Uttar Pradesh to conduct a probe,” he added.

Dhanbad police had on November 19 last year seized 29 giant sofshell turtles from the boot of a car bearing a Uttar Pradesh registration number from Barwaddah police station area and arrested two persons —Ashok Kumar and Motilal — both residents of Sultanpur.

On February 4 last year, the RPF had recovered 100 turtles of Indian softshell species from the general coach of Doon Express at Dhanbad station. The turtles, which were meant to be smuggled to Bengal, were later released into Maithon lake.

On April, 12, 2018, as many as 141 river terrapin turtles were seized by the RPF from S-9 coach of Doon Express (13010) and a smuggler called Biswa Bishwas was arrested.

The team of Government Railway Police of Dhanbad on October 26, 2016 recovered 12 turtles from Chambal Express (12176) and arrested Vijay Lal Burnwal.