Police have rescued a tokay gecko, a rare animal, while it was being bought and sold in Alfadanga, Faridpur. Citing word of mouth, police added that the animal's supposed value was Tk 100 crore.
Faridpur district police gave the details in a press release at midday on Thursday, 8 July.
A general diary (GD), number 264, has been filed with Alfadanga police station. Police have not yet been able to detain anyone.
Left hanging in a bag
Police said that on hearing a tokay gecko was being traded in Titurkandi village of Togorbondo union in Alfadanga upazila, a team led by Sub-Inspector (SI) Kader raided the spot at midday on Tuesday, 6 July. Those involved had put the gecko in a bag and hung it from a tree. Sensing the police, they left the bag behind and fled. SI Kader recovered the bag with the gecko and brought it to the police station. The gecko is about 13 inches long. The press release said that, according to word of mouth, its supposed value was Tk 100 crore.
The officer-in-charge (OC) of Alfadanga police station said the animal was released into the forest in the presence of the upazila forest officer, local public representatives and local people.
'Rumours are wiping it out'
Asked about it, Faridpur forest officer Sheikh Liton told Jago News: "The tokay is a harmless, non-venomous wild animal of the lizard family. It usually lives in the brick walls, cracks and crevices of old houses and in old trees, and eats insects, house lizards, small birds and young snakes. It is an endangered animal according to the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)."
On its supposed value, he said: "Rumours that valuable cancer drugs are made from the tokay, that keeping one at home brings in lakhs or crores of taka, that there is huge demand in a neighbouring country, that the magnet in its head is worth crores — on the strength of these, several organised gangs across the country are now chasing tokays in the dream of getting rich overnight. As far as I know, no truth has ever been found in its supposed value. But because of the rumours this rare animal is disappearing."
Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.
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