Guys, may be we have to be more carefully :))??? 

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.

Source: Chinese Road Constructors Are Threat To Reptiles In Tajikistan
Originally published on Mon, 09 Jul 2007 21:21:14 GMT by Vadim