Bengaluru: Man arrested for smuggling star tortoises

BENGALURU: Officials from the forest cell of CID and forest department arrested a 28-year-old man for allegedly smuggling star tortoises from Chennai to Bengaluru on Thursday night. The accused is Sundar Guru, a resident of Tandalli village in Ariyalur district, Tamil Nadu.

Guru was nabbed near KR Puram based on the lead provided by the TRAFFIC, the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network, an NGO.

The officials rescued 32 star tortoises that were being smuggled. "We produced the accused before court and took him in our custody for further probe," Mohammed Nizamuddin, range forest officer of KR Puram said.