India: The forest department's wildlife crime control bureau arrested two primary government schoolteachers for allegedly trying to sell four Tokay geckos.

A Tokay gecko is a species of Asian lizard characterised by orange spots on the skin and a shrill croak.

The reptile is found in rain forests, particularly in the Northeast, apart from Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Phillipines and New Guinea. It is protected under Schedule IV of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), 1972.

Forest department officers posing as buyers picked up Subrata Halder, 39, a teacher of Himchi Free Primary School in South 24-Parganas, and his colleague Dipankar Mondal, 34.

The two were arrested at Mondal's house in Sonarpur where the meeting had been fixed to finalise the deal, a forest officer said.

Geckos are highly valued in the international market for their use in traditional Chinese medicine for cancer, asthma, diabetes and skin ailments. They are popular as pets as well. In many Asian countries Tokay wine or whisky is supposed to be an aphrodisiac, the officer said.

The demand for geckos skyrocketed in the international market after word spread that they might help cure HIV/AIDS, the officer said. It also means a surge in gecko poaching.

Halder and Mondal had been on the forest department's radar for the past month. "We started tracking them after we received specific information that the two were dealing in geckos and other endangered species for a long time," another officer said.

"We posed as buyers and arrested them... we have seized their mobile phones."

Ravikant Sinha, the chief wildlife warden of Bengal, said the state was often used as a transit hub for smuggling wild animals out of the country. "These geckos have a huge demand in places like China and Burma and fetch very high prices. We are trying to find out if they are part of an international racket."

The two have been charged under various sections of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), 1972, and will be produced before a court in Baruipur on Saturday.

(Source: The Telegraph)