Date:07/11/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/11/07/stories/2009110754960300.htm

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Three held for bid to smuggle snakes

Staff Reporter

Thiruvananthapuram: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Friday arrested three persons on the charge of smuggling live Indian Sand Boas, a protected snake species, to foreign pet markets.

The accused are Shiju, 26, of Thirunelveli in Tamil Nadu and Mani, 35, and Rajendran, 30, of Nedumangadau. They were carrying three snakes concealed in plastic containers filled with sand.

The DRI said the suspects were just couriers. Their handlers in Tamil Nadu had tasked them to hand over the snakes to a person who was supposed to meet them in front of the airport.

Officials in the DRI said the snakes could have been poached from the arid forest areas of Chitoor in Andhra Pradesh. They suspect that the snakes were bound for Singapore, which has a flourishing exotic pet market.

The agency said smuggling of Sand Boa was an offence under the Indian Wildlife Act, 1972 and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The DRI handed over the suspects and the snakes to the Forest Department.

Stolen from zoo

In June this year, an Indian Sand Boa was stolen from the newly constructed reptile house inside the zoo here. The thieves had entered the sand-filled room, where the snake was kept, through the iron-barred ventilation duct on the roof of the cell.

A highway police patrol had found the snake concealed in the trunk of a car which they intercepted as part of a routine vehicle inspection, near Karakulam, on the Thiruvananthapuram-Nedumangad road. Those in the car fled when they realised that the police had discovered what they were trying to smuggle.

‘Double headed’

The Indian Sand Boa is commonly known as the ‘double headed snake’ because of its blunt tail, which is often mistaken for its head. The demand for the Indian Sand Boa in the illegal market is driven by the myth of supernatural and healing powers often associated with it by tribal medicine men and also quacks.

It is also sold in the black market in the U.S. and Europe where it is reared as a pet.