A golden Tokay gecko (a lizard species) that had been captured in Meghalaya and was being sold for Rs 15 lakh was rescued by foresters in Jalpaiguri district on Friday night.
The officials of the Baikunthapur forest division arrested three persons — Thutan Jamba, a resident of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, and Narbahadur Lama and Naduram Pagag from Tezpur and Sonitpur in Assam — when they were bargaining among themselves over the gecko at Odlabari.
Forest department sources said a team acting on a tip-off reached near a hotel in Odlabari to conduct the raid on Friday night and spotted five persons involved in a bargain.
Challenged, two of them managed to escape. “Our men arrested the other three. The gecko was found in a cage in a vehicle in which they had arrived at Odlabari from Assam,” said a forester.
According to him, the trio had captured the animal in the forests of Meghalaya. They had plans to deliver it to a potential buyer in Siliguri. “They were supposed to get Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh by selling the animal. As they could not produce any document validating the transport of the gecko, the three were arrested and booked under the Wildlife (Protection) Act,” he added.
Cattle smugglers
Two cattle smugglers were arrested in Jalpaiguri district on Friday. Harun Rashid and Rajib Mohammad, who were picked up from Bhutkihat, have six cases registered against them since 2014.
The police in Kharibari of Darjeeling district intercepted two persons — Raj Barman and Sushanta Adhikary — from Singhajote area on Friday and seized over 14kg of cannabis from them. They are residents of Cooch Behar.
The cost of the seized narcotic is around Rs 1.50 lakh, sources said.
