How Thailand as transit hub feeds India’s exotic pet craze: ‘it’s organised crime’

Thailand's Suvarnabhumi airport has emerged as a key transit hub in the lucrative global trade of exotic pets destined for India, where social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube fuel demand for animals like lemurs, iguanas, and raccoons. In a spate of incidents this April, authorities intercepted a 19-year-old passenger with dozens of fist-sized tortoises taped under her clothing, bound for Taipei. Days earlier, hundreds of live turtles, bright blue-green iguanas, and a freshwater crocodile were seized on arrival from Bengaluru. A separate case involved raccoons in a nearly airless box—one already dead—and chameleons alongside a pair of endangered gibbons, all destined for Indian buyers.

Animal activists describe the trade as organized crime, highlighting the risks of zoonotic disease transmission and the erosion of biodiversity. The seizure of endangered species like gibbons underscores the scale of the problem, with Thailand's main airport acting as a reluctant but critical node. The trade thrives on the commodification of cuteness in Asia's social media scene, where advice on raising wild animals in congested megacities is freely shared, far from their natural forest habitats. Authorities are stepping up enforcement, but the lucrative nature of the trade—and the ease of concealment—continues to challenge border security.