Game war­dens and po­lice seized 214 pro­tect­ed an­i­mals from a San­gre Grande busi­ness­man on Fri­day.

Con­ser­va­tor of Forests, Den­ny Dipchans­ingh, who co­or­di­nat­ed the ex­er­cise said the busi­ness­man has not yet been ar­rest­ed or charged as the in­ves­ti­ga­tion was at a ‘sen­si­tive’ stage. He said the man was as­sist­ing the of­fi­cers in their in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Dipchans­ingh said while he could not give the val­ue of the birds, sev­er­al of the species are sold on the black mar­ket for thou­sands of US dol­lars.

The seized birds were of a va­ri­ety of species, in­clud­ing the Blue TwaT­wa, Chest­nut Macaws, East­ern Rosel­las, Red Head Par­rots, Jen­day Conures, Galah Cock­a­toos, Bronze Winged Par­rots, African Grey Par­rots, Red-shoul­dered Macaws, Red Fan Par­rots, Ben­galese Finch­es, Goul­dian Finch­es, Red-bel­lied Macaws, Paint­ed Conures, Brown Throat­ed Conures, Blue Head­ed Pi­o­nus, yel­low Crowned Par­rots, Um­brel­la Cock­a­too, green Winged Macaws and Scar­let Macaws.

Dipchans­ingh said the birds were hand­ed over to the Em­per­or Val­ley Zoo for care and pro­tec­tion.

He said the Forestry Di­vi­sion re­cent­ly wel­comed 25 new war­dens and was con­tin­u­ing its quest to dis­man­tle the il­le­gal wildlife trade.

“We are con­tin­u­ing to make dents in the il­le­gal wildlife trade and if charges are brought in this mat­ter, this would be one of the biggest busts of the year.”

He sent out a warn­ing to the pop­u­la­tion about buy­ing an­i­mals on the black mar­ket.

“I am warn­ing the pub­lic that by pur­chas­ing some of these an­i­mals, es­pe­cial­ly through the black mar­ket, they run the risk of in­tro­duc­ing pests and dis­eases in­to the coun­try that can be harm­ful to our birds, oth­er an­i­mals and hu­mans as well,” Dipchans­ingh said.

He said the Forestry Di­vi­sion will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor the an­i­mal trade and pet shops.

Dipchans­ingh said the di­vi­sion al­so works close­ly with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice and the Cus­toms Di­vi­sion to clamp down on the sale of pro­tect­ed an­i­mals.