Wildlife smuggler arrested, snake recovered

A rare sand boa snake has been recovered from a suspected wildlife smuggler along the Indo-Nepal border, a forest officer said today.

On a tip off, a joint team of forest department and SSB arrested Ghanshyam Gupta, a resident of Nepal, from the Indo- Nepal border in Sohelwa forest range, Regional Forest Officer Karan Singh Gautam said.

A sand boa snake was recovered from him, he said

The snake was brought from Nepal and is worth about Rs 2 crore in the international market, the forest officer said.

The snake will be sent to the Lucknow Zoological gardens, he said.
 

The non-venomous snakes are in demand for their medicinal properties.