Visakhapatnam: Forest officials seized Mountain monkeys, native to Uganda, at the Ichchapuram check post while being smuggled from West Bengal to Chennai.
Palasa’s forest range officer A. Muralikrishna said forest staff carrying a routine check found two monkeys being transported in a special cage loaded on a vehicle going from Kolkata to Chennai.
When forest staff enquired about the monkeys, Sarab Mandal, Dhanujay Singh and Mukesh Ram transporting the monkeys gave unconvincing answers. Forest staff took them all to the Kasibugga range office, where a case has been registered under the Wildlife Trafficking Act.
On coming to know about the monkeys, Srikakulam district forest officer Nisha Kumari ordered that an air-conditioned vehicle be arranged with fruits and water so that the Ugandan monkeys could be shifted to the Visakhapatnam Zoo for safety.
The three men carrying the monkeys in the vehicle have been detained.
Smuggling of rare animals has been detected earlier too at the Odisha-AP Palasa border. Such animals are generally released into the forest. Forest officials say these wild animals are being smuggled using the sea route.
Forest range officer A. Muralikrishna suspects that certain people are breeding exotic animals from foreign companies in India. The matter is being investigated in the states of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Assam.
A forest official said certain drug companies also buy rare creatures for research purposes.
