Officials of the Jamboo police outpost on Tuesday arrested and court-forwarded two motorbike-borne chameleon smugglers near Ramanagr Bazaar under Mahakalpada block for smuggling exotic species of a 1.5-foot Indian chameleon. Acting on a tip-off, a police team conducted raid and managed to intercept the motorcycles by which the duo was taking the chameleon to Paradip port town, informed Jamboo police outpost in-charge Bhagabat Mahalik.
later, the police handed over the smugglers along with the chameleon and the bike to the Mahakalapada Forest (Wildlife) Range officials. The arrested were identified as Uday Acharya of Jagatsinghpur and Budhadeb Singh of Sundergarh district, informed Mahakalapada Forest (Wildlife) Ranger Bijay Parida.
Parida said the duo had collected the chameleon from a poacher of Batighar area who had trapped the chameleon from the Kharanashi Reserve Forest after making a deal of Rs50,000 with the smugglers. Meanwhile, the chameleon was released into the Kharanasi Reserve Forest.