Rourkela: Busting a wildlife smuggling racket, Forest Department officials arrested two people and seized 82 Alexandrine parakeets from them in Odisha’s Rourkela.
Acting on a tip-off about illegal parakeet trading near the Indira Gandhi Park area here, the Forest Department officials carried out a raid and seized the parakeets which were being sold off.
According to sources, the Alexandrine parakeets have high market value and are smuggled from nearby forest areas including the neighbouring state of Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh, and sold at about Rs 800-1,000 per bird. The smugglers traded the parakeets through the local shopkeepers of the area near IG Park.
Alerted about the racket, the Forest Department prepared a blueprint on Monday and went on a raid arresting two people and seizing 20 Alexandrine parakeets. Based on the information given by the arrested smugglers, the Department raided another house in the locality where they found more parakeets. All the parakeets were recovered and are now with the Forest Department.
Suspecting the involvement of many more bird sellers of Rourkela in the illegal trading, an investigation to nab all involved has been initiated.
It may be mentioned here that the parakeets are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and cannot be sold or kept captive as per the law.
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