CHENNAI: In one of the biggest crackdowns on wildlife trade in the city, officials of the Airport Customs and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) along with the Tamil Nadu Wildlife Warden seized as many as 22 animals belonging to seven exotic species arriving at the Chennai airport from Thailand. The seizure further led them to a two-storey house in Kolathur where several hundred other animals were housed.

It all started when Mohammed Meera Sardharali arrived in Chennai on Air Asia flight FD 153 at 11.10pm on Saturday. Customs investigators questioned him and found 22 exotic animals in his checked baggage, including a siamang gibbon (a monkey native to Indonesia and Thailand), two Sunda paragliders (a bat-like mammal native to Myanmar, Indonesia and Thailand), a red-backed turtle, five Indo-Chinese box turtles, nine four-eyed turtles, a keeled box turtle, two green pythons and a white-lipped python.

Except for the lemur, all other species are protected by the Wildlife Protection Act and CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). Customs officials arrested Sardharali and a consignee named Mohammed Ithris outside the airport. In most cases, this is where the customs investigation ends.