Chinese Road
Constructors Are Threat To Reptiles In Tajikistan
Vadim
In Tajikistan in Varzob gorge a Chinese company is building a road. Chinese
are famous for their exotic cuisine in the whole world. In Tajikistan this
food seems strange to people but it does not withhold them from selling snakes
and turtles to Chinese road-constructors (rus). The local environementalists
are raising concerns because the local population made this a profitable
business.
Usually the local boys are catching the reptiles and selling to Chinese cooks.
One of these boys says:
Snakes are expensive – 30-40 somoni [~$10-11US]. There are not too many of
them and they are biting. It’s dengerous. The turtles are sold at the same
price as watermelons, depending on the size. The small ones are sold for 3
somonis, the average for 5 somonis, and the big ones are sold for 8-10 somonis.
Well, as AsiaPlus reports previously there was no danger for the reptiles and
no one was thinking of making profit from them, but the Chinese
road-constructors made the local population look at them differently. The
company is going to work in Varzob for two more years and the local
environmentalists say that they are afraid that by that time there will be no
snakes or turtles in the gorge.
neweurasia.Vadim
Tajikistan
