Police have arrested two young men with two gorkhodok animals, a species described as extinct, in Bakalia, Chattogram. They are Amjad alias Amju (26) and Md Sakib (22), who were arrested on Monday night.

Amju is the son of Babul Mia of Subil Fateyabad village in Debidwar upazila, Cumilla, and Sakib is the son of Jahangir Alam of the Shikalbaha College Bazar area of Chattogram. Both live in a rented house owned by Jasim in the Chairman Ghata Balur Math area of Bakalia.

A case has been filed against them under the wildlife conservation law, and they were sent to court on Tuesday afternoon, Bakalia police station officer-in-charge (OC) Abdur Rahim told Jagonews.

He said that acting on a tip-off, police raided the Shah Amanat Bridge area of Bakalia and detained the two with two gorkhodoks from a CNG-run auto-rickshaw. Amju is a member of a wildlife trafficking ring, he said.

"At first the two animals could not be identified, so the Forest Department's wildlife conservation unit was informed. Officials from the unit came and identified them as gorkhodoks. They said the gorkhodok is on the list of extinct species," the OC said.

In initial questioning, Amju said a man had brought the two animals from Teknaf in Cox's Bazar as far as Moijjartek, where they were handed over to them. The animals were to be taken from there to Khulna, and the plan was then to smuggle them abroad.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.