Chinese
Officials Hand Over 200 Black Pond Turtles to Pakistani Delegation
At a ceremony organized at the Pakistan-China border at the
Khunjerab Pass, Chinese officials handed over 200 black pond turtles to a
Pakistani delegation having Sindh wildlife department and officials from World
Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P).
The turtles were smuggled from Sindh to China. But now the turtles
are with the Indus Dolphin Centre in Sukkur. The Chinese authorities said they
have arrested two Pakistani and five Chinese poachers. Most likely, these
poachers will get life imprisonment. Earlier, death penalty was given to such
offenders.
"The rescued hard-shell turtles will be released into their
natural habitat soon once they are rehabilitated at the Dolphin Centre that has
been declared their quarantine", said Sindh Wildlife conservator Javed
Maher.
Uzma Noureen, a WWF-P official and was also part of the delegation,
shared that different species of turtles are illegally taken from Pakistan to
other countries and especially in China and east Asian countries. For the first
time, the illegally poached animals have been recovered alive.
In total, eight different species of freshwater turtles are found
in Pakistan. Five of them are counted in the list of globally threatened
species. All the eight species have been listed in the CITES (Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora) Appendices I
& II.
Because of being endangered in nature, these species cannot be
imported or exported without legal approval. These species can be found in the
Indus River system.
Since 2000, illegal trade of soft shell turtle species is going on.
In the past as well, the wildlife and Customs authorities have seized many
consignments. These shipments contained frozen meat of turtles and body parts
of soft shell species. These items are used as food and for traditional
medicines. But now, the hard shell species are also being targeted for illegal
trade.
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