Twenty-Seven Food Packets Held Forty-Five Living Animals

Indian customs officers found 45 live reptiles sedated and hidden inside food packets in the luggage of two passengers arriving from Bangkok, in one of two recent wildlife cases the government disclosed

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The passengers, both Indian nationals, landed at Tiruchirappalli airport in Tamil Nadu on 26 October on a flight routed through Colombo. Acting on prior intelligence, officers from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the airport’s air intelligence unit searched their bags and recovered the animals from 27 separate food containers.

The haul comprised 23 corn snakes, 16 ball pythons, five Argentine black and white tegus and a single white iguana. None of the species is native to India; all are common in the international exotic pet trade. The animals were seized and both passengers were arrested under India’s customs law.

Separately, the environment ministry said it had sent a central team to Madhya Pradesh to investigate the death of a cheetah from shotgun pellet wounds.

The animal, a 19-month-old male born at Kuno National Park, was found injured on 25 October in forest outside the park’s protected boundary, in an area where it had strayed. It was taken the same day to a veterinary facility at Jabalpur, where surgeons removed five pellets. It died on 27 October. Post-mortem examination confirmed multiple internal injuries consistent with the pellets.

The central team includes senior officers from the national tiger authority and the wildlife crime control bureau. The state government has set up its own task force of forest and police officers. Beyond establishing who fired the shots, the central team has been asked to examine the protection and monitoring arrangements around the animals, and will report back with recommendations.

The death is a setback for a project that has drawn international attention.