Singapore has sent back 51 Indian star tortoises on a Singapore Airlines flight as they were illegally trafficked here as prized exotic pets.
This is the largest number of Indian star tortoises - coveted for their star-patterned shells - to be repatriated from Singapore, The Straits Times reported on Tuesday.
Their striking, intricate appearances make them an easy target for poachers, who are often part of organised crime rings that profit from animal trafficking.
The lucky few saved by the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) are just a fraction of the estimated 10,000 to 20,000 taken from the wild to meet the international demand for exotic pets, according to the Singapore daily.
Acres has cared for the tortoises for more than eight years at its premises at Jalan Lekar in western Singapore.
The organisation has spared no expense to provide varied and tailored diets for the tortoises, along with intensive veterinary care and healthy environmental conditions to keep them fit for travel.
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Partner organisation, Wildlife SOS India, was to meet the creatures after their four-and-half-hour flight to Bengaluru.
The tortoises will then be quarantined, monitored, tagged with transmitters and released into a protected reserve in Karnataka.
"I am relieved that these tortoises are finally coming back to where they belong," The Straits Times quoted Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder and CEO of Wildlife SOS, as saying.
The tortoises were rescued from a variety of places in Singapore, such as roadsides, local households, where they were ill-treated, and the briefcases of smugglers.
Anbarasi Boopal, deputy chief executive of Acres, said: "The odds never favoured us, but our perseverance and sheer will, together with support from Wildlife SOS India, paved the way for us to repatriate these animals."