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Trade in Tokay geckos continues in Bengal
News:
- Border Security Force have reported the smuggling of three Tokay geckos from West Bengal’s Malda and Murshidabad districts.
Important facts:
- About Tokay geckos
- Tokay gecko is a lizard species with orange-spotted blue-grey skin.
- It is protected under the Schedule III of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act.
- Tokay geckos are one of the largest geckos alive today which can grow up to 14 inches in length.
- Tokay geckos are insectivorous, and eat pests such as cockroaches.
- Tokay geckos communicate vocally to find members of the opposite sex during the breeding season.
- Tokay geckos are found from northeast India to the Indo-Australian Archipelago and tropical rain forests.
- The Siliguri Frontier of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) in north Bengal seized 24 tokay geckos between November 2017 and April 2018.
- The Expert from wildlife have raised the concern arguing that:
- The seizures at border checkpoints would yield no results unless there was some intervention at the forests and habitats from where the animal was seized.
- Smugglers raised false hype about the medicinal value of these wildlife species to create a demand for them both within and outside India.
- Wildlife Crime Control Bureau said the high rate of smuggling of Tokay geckos have led them to bring under the Schedule III of wildlife protection Act.
- Tokay geckos which is above 13 cm in length and over 350 grams in weight fetch exorbitantly high prices in China and parts of South Asia.
- May 22 is observed as International Day for Biological Diversity.
