A safe home for geckos

Twenty-five tokay geckos, which were rescued from Sylhet's Zakiganj upazila in December last year, were released at the district's Khadimnagar National Park yesterday afternoon. 

Following a court order, the geckos were released in the forest said Islam Uddin, forest ranger in Sylhet.

On December 1 last year, law enforcers rescued 28 tokay geckos from a house at the upazila's Mobinpur area and arrested one Bilal Ahmed who was keeping them with him, said Paritosh Paul, sub-inspector of Zakiganj Police Station.

Trading and selling wild geckos is a punishable crime, he added.

Police filed a case in this connection on the same day. On December 12, a Sylhet court ordered police to release the geckos in a national forest through Forest Department, he added.

Among the rescued geckos, three died by this time and the remaining were released, said Islam.

Tokay geckos are native to Southeast Asia and are one of the largest among all geckos, reaching up to around 35cm in length.

One variant of the tokay gecko has red-spots while the other has black ones. The colours on the bodies of these nocturnal animals are used for camouflage, and they can lighten or darken their skin colour to blend in with the surrounding environment.