Talking to India Today, Dr Pritinder Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, Agra, said that the police team had stopped a truck from Karnataka for routine checking when they found that the truck was brimming with livestock crates stacked upon each other. Clearly the crates were too small to house a duck as they appeared to be chicken crates so prima facie it appeared a case of duck smuggling.

He said that the truck was confiscated and a team of PFA members was called at the location who filed a complaint under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, as the ducks were being transported in inhumane conditions and several of the 2100 ducks being transported, had succumbed to the stress of the inhospitable environment. Remaining ducks were transported to the Keetham Bird Sanctuary and released around the lake.

SSP said that the truck driver and four other people who were traveling along have revealed to the police that the ducks were meant for a farm in Rudrapur, UK. Although when the forests and wildlife department was contacted, they said that these ducks do not come under conserved species and both the ducks and their eggs were consumed as food.

PFA's DeeptiUpadhyay has informed environmentalist and Union Minister Maneka Gandhi about the incident. She alleged that these ducks were being taken from Rudrapur to Chandigarh where a smuggler deals in meat of wild animals and already has several criminal cases pending against him. These ducks would have been butchered in Chandigarh, she said.

Social activist Deep Sharma said that the smuggling of ducks was just a tip of the iceberg as a number of wildlife officials are actively colluding with the poachers and smugglers for wildlife meat. The turtles in Yamuna and Chambal rivers are the most exploited marine wildlife species by poachers in this region and turtle smuggling cases come up every few months, but no vigilance is observed to prevent this poaching at its source.