Mumbai: Woman caught smuggling rare tortoises at Dadar railway station

A 59-year-old woman was caught by the Dadar Railway Police Force (RPF) on Saturday with three Indian star tortoises measuring 16 centimeters in length and 9 centimeters in breadth.

According to the RPF officials, on Saturday morning at 11:52 am on a long distance train, Punjab mail, which had arrived at Dadar station and the woman identified as Aagtha Queenie, a resident of Worli was spotted carrying a plastic basket. The RPF officials on suspicion checked the basket and found three live tortoises inside. On questioning she told the officials that she was travelling from Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh and had purchased them there.

An RPF official said, "These species are endangered and are not allowed to keep as pets. When questioning the woman she did not reveal if she had brought them for selling them or to keep them as pets. Later they were seized along with the basket in which the tortoise were transported. The tortoise would be released in the wild and woman would face action under the wildlife act after investigations."

Inspector Sunil Chate of the Dadar RPF said, "since the case was realted to the wildlife we informed the forest officials and the seized tortoise along with the lady were handed over to them."