Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh police rescued seven Egyptian vultures in Khadwa district on Thursday and arrested a 60 year old smuggler, who is trafficking the vultures in a train. RPF officials and forest officials seized the vultures from the smuggler and handed over to the forest department.

According to the officials sources a joint team from RPF and State Forest Department we got a call from the Khandwa RPF that a person has been intercepted with Egyptian vultures. We immediately reached there and a joint team of forest department and the RPF raided the train and arrested Farid Sheikh. We found seven Egyptian vultures from him,” Khandwa’s senior forest department official Anil Shukla.
Uttar Pradesh Unnao’s Farid Sheikh smuggling seven endangered Egyptian vultures from Kanpur to Malegaon in Maharashtra. Authorities were alerted when passengers in the second class sleeper coach of the Sultanpur-Mumbai Superfast Express complained of a foul smell in their compartment and sound of birds. The vultures were found in plastic bags after a cordon and search of the coach. Sameer Khan had offered Sheikh ₹ 10,000 for transporting the vultures. A case has been registered under the Wildlife Protection Act.