World's smallest monkey, honey bear, red-eared turtle: What Customs at Mumbai airport found from bag of passenger arriving from Bangkok

Indian Express

10 hours ago

The Customs department arrested a passenger at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) in Mumbai Friday evening for allegedly smuggling two kinkajous (also known as honey bear, a mammal found in the rainforests of Central and South America), two pygmy marmosets (smallest monkey in the world, native to South America), and 50 albino red-eared sliders (a color variation of the common red-eared slider turtle).
The Customs nabbed Sharukkhan Mohammed Hussain, an Indian citizen, when he arrived from Bangkok based on specific intelligence. While checking his dark-coloured trolley bag, officials found that he was carrying live wildlife. They booked him under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962, read with the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
Kinkajou is listed in Appendix III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and the pygmy marmoset is listed in Appendix II of CITES and Schedule IV of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Albino red-eared sliders are not listed in either CITES or the amended Wildlife (Protection) Act.
In the past six months, Customs officials in Mumbai have arrested several people for allegedly smuggling wildlife, including meerkats, star tortoises, and various types of lizards, some of which are exotic species.
Two of the largest seizures happened on July 10 and 11, when the Customs confiscated meerkats, Sumatran rabbits, great-billed parrots and Indo-Chinese box turtles at Mumbai Airport. Two passengers travelling on separate flights with wildlife were arrested.
On June 1, the Customs arrested a Chennai resident, Mohammed Hanif Shahul, at the Mumbai airport after he arrived from Kuala Lumpur, as it recovered five baby siamang gibbons. They were ingeniously concealed inside plastic boxes/cages, which were then placed inside the trolley bags carried by the passenger.
During a further inspection of the baggage, officials discovered that the passenger was carrying three live spider-tailed horned vipers and five Asian leaf turtles. Both species are listed under Appendix II of CITES as well as Schedule IV of the amended Wildlife (Protection) Act.
They also found 44 Indonesian pit vipers in Shahul's bag. Of these, 43 were alive, and one was found dead. This species is not listed under CITES. According to a Customs release, this incident constituted a violation of CITES and import policies, as the importation of live animals requires a license from the Director General of Foreign Trade.