In 2019, the illegal wildlife trade reached staggering levels. Pangolin scales and ivory were being trafficked in massive quantities from Africa to Asia, exposing a network of crime syndicates operating at an industrial scale. The sheer volume of these shipments marked a disturbing milestone, one that revealed the global reach …
the Chinese government is reportedly rethinking the ban on sale of tiger and its body parts in its domestic markets. China had imposed a ban on domestic trade in 1993, in an attempt to stop the poaching of tigers for use in traditional Chinese medicine. The ban in China has …
Tata Chemicals and Gujarat Heavy Chemicals have pitched in their mite behind the effort to save the whale shark Aunique corporate-ngo partnership in coastal Gujarat has succeeded in giving a new lease of life to the spectacular whale shark, the world's largest fish, which was being poached almost to extinction …
the ebola virus is threatening lowland gorillas of central Africa, states the World Conservation Union (iucn). The warning is significant as the area has one of the largest concentrations of these gorillas, and they are already endangered by factors such as deforestation and trade in wild animals. Ebola haemorrhagic fever …
do they train Indian foresters to mess up wildlife situations? It is difficult to ascribe the series of botch-ups involving leopards in the last month or so to misfortune. The most recent one was the highly publicised spectacle of a leopard killed by police and wildlife officials after it entered …
An illegal wildlife trade racket has been unearthed in Africa. In January 2002, four lowland gorillas from the zoological garden at Nigeria's University of Ibadan were transferred to Taiping Zoo in Malaysia. Now, the secretariat of the global Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (cites) is probing into the alleged …
Beast Threat Many animals, under threat from humans, have gone locally extinct. A recent report of the Wildlife Conservation Society (wcs) states that Asia's wildlife is in trouble due to indiscriminate hunting and illegal trade in animal parts. Tigers across Indo-China have disappeared. They were hunted down as trophy and …
The Tanzanian authorities seized more than a thousand elephant tusks stolen by poachers at the Dar es Salaam port recently. According to the police, two Tanzanians had been arrested following the haul of 1,255 tusks in two suburban homes. However, it is not clear where the tusks had originated. Poaching …
Why has a ban been imposed on shark hunting in particular? Sharks have a vital role in the marine ecosystem since they are the apex predator at the top of the marine food chain. But today they are almost extinct, being a major target of the fish hunters. Their slow …
environmentalists and forest department officials in Sikkim are incensed at the recent release of two Russians who were found stealing rare species of butterflies, moths and beetles from the Kanchenjunga National Park. The two Russians, Victor Sinyaev and Oleg Amosov, were arrested by the state's forest department under the Wildlife …
participants from over 20 countries gathered in Bali, Indonesia, from September 11-13, 2001, to strategise on how to battle the myriad of problems of forest management, including illegal logging on a national and international scale. Officially known as the Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (fleg) East Asia Ministerial conference, the …
Illegal trade in wildlife is threatening Costa Rica's biodiversity. The most sought after species are the limpets, parrots, jaguar cubs, toucans, squirrel monkeys and tropical fish. "We don't have the resources to control the illegal trade,' said Juan Rodriguez, a biologist with the country's ministry of environment and energy. According …
the Himalayan state of Sikkim is a paradise for nature lovers. It is also thronged by those who want to exploit the area's biodiversity for financial gains. Two Russians were arrested on July 30, 2001, for illegally collecting insects in large quantity from the remote Yuksam forest of the Kanchenjunga …
A supposedly scientific expedition into the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (ndbr) has stirred the minds of people in Lata village of district Chamoli, in Uttaranchal. They say the expedition was a farce. They claim it was a surreptitious attempt to open the region to high-end tourism with tour operators and …
Poachers recently killed 15 sea lions in Ecuador's Galapagos Islands. The carcasses of the animals, four females and 11 males, were found on the southern shore of San Cristobal. All the animals had fractured skulls and missing teeth. "The sexual organisms of the males had been removed, most probably for …
a report by the Wildlife Trust of India ( wti ) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare ( ifaw ) says that despite a worldwide ban, shahtoosh trade continues unabated. Union power minister Suresh Prabhu recently released the report, which is based on investigations that were carried out by …
A sum of us $42,000 was raised in Singapore during an auction of 25,000 pieces of illegally imported snake skin. The skin pieces belong to the endangered banded rat snake. Custom officials found the skins, which were illegally imported, in a warehouse. The company that imported the skins was later …
The world's three biggest caviar-exporting nations have agreed to stop sturgeon fishing in the Caspian Sea for the rest of this year to save the fish from extinction. Sturgeons of the Caspian Sea are threatened due to the increasing demand for their pickled unfertilised eggs called caviar. The sea is …
