Scubaism

Customs officers at Kuala Lumpur’s airport seized 404 Indian Star Tortoises in April from an Indian national’s cabin luggage. The man was immediately deported to India and no charges were laid. The tortoises, scientifically known as “Geochelone elegans”, could have fetched up to $23,700 in total. The case underlines large-scale smuggling of tortoises and other endangered wildlife into and through Malaysia. But only 385 of the tortoises will make it to India as the remaining 19 have since died.

Native to the Indian sub-continent, the tortoise is distinctive, growing up to about 30 centimetres across the carapace, conservationists said. But it faces a number of threats: it is traded for food, used in traditional medicine (primarily in Asia) and kept as a pet in Asia and North America.

In India, it is illegal either to possess or trade the Indian Star Tortoise and the species is also legally protected in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, it said. According to the Turtle Survival Alliance, India has 28 species and subspecies of tortoises and freshwater turtles, making it one of the most diverse chelonian faunas in the world.