5 monkeys, wallaby rescued in Assam; one arrested

Guwahati, April 28 Five 'exotic' monkeys and a wallaby were rescued while being smuggled into Assam's Kamrup district and a person was arrested in connection, forest officials said on Thursday.

Acting on a tip-off, a team led by North Kamrup Division Range Officer Sangeeta Rani Singha intercepted an Innova vehicle in Hajo on Wednesday night and seized six cages in which the animals were found.

The team arresyed one person while another fled.

The forest and the wildlife officials continued their search and interrogating the detainee to ascertain from where the animals were brought and their ultimate destination.

During the past few years, Assam witnessed seizures of rare and exotic animals which are not found in the mountainous northeastern region.

Forest officials have recovered several exotic animals in southern Assam after being smuggled from Myanmar as Mizoram, Manipur and other northeastern states are being used as corridors.

Myanmar shares a 1,643 km of unfenced border with the states of Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Nagaland.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor