&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Snakes on a plane? Man travelling from Thailand to India busted with 16 live creepy-crawlies at Mumbai airport")
Sixteen live snakes were seized from a plane passenger coming from Thailand on Monday (June 30), said Indian customs officers in Mumbai. This marks the third such seizure in the month of June. The passenger has been arrested, and "further investigation into another wildlife smuggling attempt underway, "the customs agency said in a statement.
"Customs officers ... foiled yet another wildlife smuggling attempt, 16 live snakes ... seized from a passenger returning from Thailand," customs officers said. They added that it took place at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in India.
The live snakes, which include reptiles frequently sold in the pet trade, were largely non-venomous, or with low venom to affect people. They included garter snakes, a rhino rat snake, a coastal banded California king snake, and a Kenyan sand boa, among others.
Customs officials at Mumbai airport, typically on the lookout for gold, cash, or drugs, have recently reported a noticeable uptick in wildlife smuggling cases.
Dozens of venomous vipers were seized in the early days of June
Earlier in June, customs intercepted a traveller arriving from Thailand who was smuggling several venomous vipers. Just days later, another individual was caught with around 100 exotic animals, including sunbirds, lizards, and tree-dwelling possums, according to a report in CBS News.
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Back in February, authorities caught a smuggler with five Siamang gibbons, endangered apes native to Southeast Asia, hidden cleverly inside a plastic crate tucked within a trolley bag.
The customs officers said that all those small creatures, enlisted in the IUCN list as 'endangered', were '"ingeniously concealed" in a plastic crate placed inside the passenger's trolley bag. In November, officials discovered a passenger carrying a live cargo of 12 turtles.
TRAFFIC flags concern
The wildlife monitoring organisation TRAFFIC, which works to combat the illegal trade of wild animals and plants, has flagged concerns over a "very troubling" rise in trafficking linked to the growing demand for exotic pets.
According to the group, over 7,000 animals, both living and dead, have been confiscated along the air route between Thailand and India in the past three and a half years. Their analysis disclosed that although the majority of animals originate from Thailand, over 80 per cent of the seizures occurred in India.
