On September 1, the Border Security Force (BSF) in Tarali, at the India-Bangladesh border, received a tip: there was likely going to be a major case of smuggling across the international border. A day later, on September 2, at around 7:30pm, BSF jawans found three smugglers running into Bangladeshi territory with large sacks on their heads.
While one smuggler was apprehended, the remaining two fled into Bangladeshi territory. The seized sack contained close to 200 Indian star tortoises, a species that has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 2016. According to the BSF statement, the apprehended smuggler had said the remaining two sacks also contained similar numbers of the Indian star tortoise and were headed to Bangladesh, a job for which he received Rs. 500.
Since January 2024, BSF in southern West Bengal alone, has seized close to 600 Indian star tortoises. Between 2015-2024, official figures for seizures of live tortoises were approximately 1,250. Additionally, the central security agency has seized approximately 250 kgs of body parts of tortoises are commonly trafficked. But experts claim that the figures are likely to be significantly higher, with numbers only increasing due to an increase in demand in the international market, particularly in Southeast Asia.
The Indian star tortoise is listed in the CITES Appendix I, which includes species threatened with extinction, and Schedule 1 of India’s Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, which provides absolute protection to animals listed under it. The punishment for trafficking of the species is jail term anywhere between three to seven years along with a fine of along with a fine not less than Rs. 25,000, according to the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
According to the United Nations, in 2016, the annual value of illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be worth USD 7-23 billion, reads a statement cited by TRAFFIC, a leading NGO working globally on trade in wild animals and plants in the context of both biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.
The demand for star tortoises is so high because they are coveted as pets, both in India and overseas. “The star tortoise can grow up to the size of an adult palm and even bigger. In western India, people like to keep it as a good luck charm. Sometimes it is kept as a religious object or as a symbol of longevity,” says Anirban Chaudhuri, herpetologist and consultant with World Animal Protection, a global non-profit.
“All they can be given for food is vegetables, and they just roam around the house on their own… It is also considered to be a more exotic pet, where one can say ‘everyone has a dog, but I have a tortoise’,” he adds.
According to Uttara Mendiratta, an independent researcher who focuses on illegal trafficking of tortoises and turtles in India, tortoises and freshwater turtles are amongst the most commonly trafficked animals in India and that the West Bengal-Bangladesh border is one of the hottest trade routes for tortoises (used for) pets and turtles for meat.. “There are two overlapping networks trafficking turtles for pets and turtles for meat,” she says. There is also trafficking of parts like dry callipee, that is the cartilaginous tissue found in softshell turtles.
Stricter enforcement, especially at airports around the country, are making it harder for traffickers to use those exits to remove wildlife from the country. This contributes to factors why the trafficking routes along the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal are witnessing an increase of illegal movement of wildlife and subsequent spike in seizures by border security.
A senior BSF official told indianexpress.com that the seizure of wildlife at the international border always poses challenges because soldiers who detail traffickers don’t always know what to do with living wildlife or how to adequately care for them in the hours between seizure to the handing over of the animals to the forest department.
“Southern West Bengal is a well-established smuggling route. The issue is that there is a huge demand for wildlife, which is why we keep finding cases of wildlife trafficking occurring in the West Bengal-India border region,” says a senior official at Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, the Indian government’s statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to combat organised wildlife crime, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak regarding the recent seizure.
The collection of the star tortoise is undertaken at the ground level by impoverished rural communities who live in and around the habitats of the species in the wild in south India. Researchers say that villagers who chance upon the tortoises in the wild collect and store the animals till they manage to procure some 200-300 of them in one collection. A designated village leader is then tasked with transporting the animals to dealers in nodal cities like Bangalore from where the trade route used by wildlife traffickers starts. While the individual tortoise is sold at high prices to customers at the end of the trafficking chain, the collectors at the village-level who find the tortoises in the wild get paid a pittance in comparison.
“Evidence seems to suggest that collection of star tortoises is often opportunistic. Most people collecting these animals know these are of high value and if they find them they should take them. Villagers will sell it to middlemen who will then sell it to urban markets. The middlemen know these landscapes well and have good networks that are able to track supply.” says Mendiratta.
The process is long-winding: It starts in southern states, usually in a city like Bangalore, from where the tortoises are taken to Mumbai and/or Ahmedabad using roads or railways. This route has historically served the domestic market. “The ones that enter Kolkata are through Chennai using the railways or roadways. In Kolkata, they are given to distributors who in turn hand the tortoises over to two sets of people. One is the domestic trader and the second is the international trafficker,” says Chaudhuri.
The international trafficker will take the tortoises from Kolkata by road to the more porous sections of the India-Bangladesh border at Bongaon, or Nadia-Murshidabad, that are key routes for other forms of trafficking as well. Once the consignment of tortoises is transported illegally across the international border, it is taken by road to Dhaka. “We don’t have much idea about what happens in terms of the domestic trade of tortoises in Bangladesh, but from there it goes to Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia and China,” says Chaudhuri.
The domestic market meant that till the 1970s, the star tortoises were openly sold, including in Kolkata’s New Market, the oldest and largest marketplace in the state. Till a few years ago, many Indian star tortoises were trafficked to Europe and the US and bred in captivity, says Chaudhuri. “The star tortoise has been traded from (the West Bengal belt) since the late 1960s. It caters to two types of demands: domestic and international, and it is trafficked in such quantities that there is supply for both kinds.”
The large numbers of tortoises that are getting trafficked every year indicate that most of the animals are wild. “We suspect that they are being bred in captivity but it is a very laborious process. It is easy to just catch them in the wild for sale. At least 99 per cent of the tortoises that get trafficked from India are from the wild,” says Chaudhuri.
Successful captive breeding programmes and law enforcement meant that trafficking of the species to the West stooped. But it continued domestically in India and overseas through Southeast Asia.
According to nationwide seizure data by the Wildlife Trade Portal of India, there were 412 listed seizures of the species between 2014 and 2024, during which nearly 14,000 star tortoises were seized either dead or alive.
But according to Aristo Mendis, team member of the Counter Wildlife Trafficking Programme at Wildlife Conservation Society, an NGO based in India, the numbers are likely to be significantly higher because of misidentification of animal species that commonly occurs during seizures due to misdeclaration where the name of species that is allowed to be traded legally is used during enforcement checks.
“In a majority of cases, when seizures occurred in central India or other states, we find that they were mostly headed towards West Bengal. They typically fill gunny sacks with the tortoises and load them on trucks for transporting,” says Mendis.
The reason for seizures occurring in other parts of India is linked to the habitat of the Indian star tortoise. “They can be found in the wild in Gujarat’s scrub forest, but they are most commonly sourced from southern Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu,” says Chaudhuri.
A senior BSF official told indianexpress.com on the condition of anonymity that the seizure of wildlife at the international border always poses challenges because soldiers who detail traffickers don’t always know what to do with living wildlife or how to adequately care for them in the hours between seizure to the handing over of the animals to the forest department.
“The trafficking of the Indian star tortoise is extremely well-organised. You don’t see this with the many other wildlife species that are trafficked. Earlier, it was openly traded. But a government crackdown has meant that it is now done covertly. Now, there are many changes of hands involved,” says Chaudhuri.
Every year, researchers witness a spike in the trafficking of the species during the months of March-April and September-October because the tortoise is more frequently seen outside its shelter as it comes out to consume wild grass.
“The loss of this species will impact the ecosystem. They are grazers. They eat the small grass and contribute to seed dispersal. They are also vulnerable to predators. The disappearance of a species will naturally cause disruption, but we don’t know how this will impact us due to lack of research. But there will be an impact because every species has its role. Wild animals belong in the wild,” says Chaudhuri.
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