Kathmandu, March 20
Custom officials at Mumbai Airport on Sunday seized 146 tortoises from a mishandled baggage allegedly belonging to a Nepali citizen.
According to local reports, the incident happened when Jet Airways staff brought one left-behind baggage to officers of Air Intelligence Unit (AIU), saying that some suspicious images (shell like) had been noticed by the scanner.
This bag was said to belong to a transit passenger, who arrived from Madagascar and flew to Kathmandu leaving this bag behind. Officers of Air Intelligence Unit examined the bag and recovered and seized 146 tortoises.
According to reports, two of the tortoises died because of travel-related stress.
Reports also said that as the tortoises were exotic to India, they would have to be re-exported to where they came from. The identity of the traveler has been withheld.
