Snakes on a plane highlight Thailand-India trafficking: NGO

BANGKOK: Venomous vipers found in checked bags on a flight from Thailand to India illustrate a “very troubling” trend in wildlife trafficking driven by the exotic pet trade, an NGO warned on Monday.Indian customs officials last week arrested an Indian national after finding dozens of snakes and several turtles in their luggage.

Among them were several spider-tailed horned vipers, a venomous species only described by scientists in 2006 and classed as “near-threatened” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The reptiles are among over 7,000 animals, dead and alive, that have been seized along the Thailand-India air route in the last 3.5 years, said Traffic, which battles the smuggling of wild animals and plants. “The almost-weekly discoveries and diversity of wildlife en route to India is very troubling,” said Traffic’s Southeast Asia director Kanitha Krishnasamy.

Many of those captured were alive, which “shows that the clamour for exotic pets is driving the trade”, she added. The group said its analysis showed that while most cases involve animals smuggled out of Thailand, over 80 percent of interceptions happened in India.