Malkangiri: Police have busted a freshwater turtle smuggling racket with the arrest of two persons at MPV 81 village in Malkangiri district on Friday.
The arrested smugglers have been identified as Prakash Tarkadar and Abhijit Bala of MPVV-81 village.
Acting on a tip-off, the MV 79 forest officials conducted a raid at MPV-81 village and seized the turtles as well arrested the two turtle smugglers.
Notably, people from the Bengali community in the Malkangiri district prefer to eat turtles. On the other hand, the turtles get smuggled from Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to Malkangiri.