Guwahati, Aug. 18 -- Mizoram, with its porous border and ongoing international tensions, is often a key area for the black market, where drug smuggling causes clashes, arrests, and large seizures. Additionally, the state is dealing with the trafficking of exotic animals.

Since June 2020, the Mizoram Environment, Forests & Climate Change (EF&CC) Department's wildlife division has seized 1,103 exotic animals, smuggled illegally from South Asian countries through Myanmar.

"The seizures were made by personnel of Assam Rifles, Border Security Force, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, customs department, and the state police, as well as volunteers of the local civil societies," an official from the wildlife department said.

Lizards are the...