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 …
A BOUTIQUE in Los Angeles, USA, will pay a fine of us $175,000 for importing and selling shahtoosh shawls made from the wool of the endangered chiru (Tibetan antelope). Under an agreement with the US government, Maxfield Enterprises Incorporation, the boutique located on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood, will also …
An international wildlife smuggler has been sentenced for 71 months by a San Francisco federal court. He has also been directed to pay a fine of US $60,000. Keng Liang
Members of Taiwan's triads (secret societies) are using wild animals to test weapons purchased from smugglers. Their targets are boars, flying squirrels, wild rabbits, red deer and macaques. Reporters from Taiwan's China Times Express recently came across one such group, which told them that what they were doing was common …
The government of the state of Jammu and Kashmir (j & k) is in a fix on the issue of trade in shahtoosh, high-quality wool from the neck-hair of the endangered Tibetan antelope, known as chiru. On May 1, 2000, the High Court of j & k had ruled that …
Breeding of wild animals in India has been unsuccessful, point out several wildlife conservationists. However, several similar ventures have succeeded in other parts of the world. While China has successfully bred musk deer, India has failed to do so despite three breeding farms (see box: Musk deer: smell of failure …
Very little scientific literature is available on the chiru (Tibetan antelope, Pantholops hodgsoni ). Most articles about the animal, if not all, are based on the research conducted by George Schaller, director of science at the Wildlife Conservation Society, New York. Schaller found in 1995 that there are around 75,000 …
The death of wild animals in a zoo is, indeed a shocking phenomenon. On one hand the government and international agencies spend crores of rupees to save the tiger and on the other we murder 12 tigers due to gross negligence. The highly qualified doctors who vaccinated the tigers at …
the sturgeon population is fast declining due to poaching, illegal trade, habitat loss, dam constructions, pollution, damaging aquaculture practices, lack of regional cooperation in conservation programmes and poor law enforcement. This was revealed during a recent international meeting of more than 40 experts, including scientists, representatives of government and non-governmental …
Walking through the Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary on a misty morning is a cherishing experience. Pushing through the bed of grass bathed in morning mist, hearing the melancholic strains of the Malabar Whistling Thrush (Myophonus horsfieldi), one can spend a solitary morning in communion with nature. The reverie, however, might be …
The red alert in Corbett after the killing of five tuskers is only fuelling the growing cynicism over state managed conservation programmes in India. It is only giving more credence to the school of thought that insists that only poachers will thrive in an era of wildlife rules and regulations …
At least 317 cases of killing and trafficking of protected wild animals have been reported in the Guangdong province of China during a recent five-day special inspection campaign. "At least 17,582 wild animals were confiscated during the campaign,' said Zhou Bingnan, deputy secretary-general of the province. According to Zhou, the …
Wildlife experts studying Thailand's tigers have reported that fewer than 150 tigers are left in the Khai Yai National Park and poachers are fast targeting the surviving ones. The poachers, mostly poor villagers from settlements surrounding the national park, are hunting the tiger on a large-scale, as their body parts …
poaching of elephants is increasing at a sharp rate in the forests of Orissa. Not even a month passes without a number of elephants falling victims to the poachers. According to government officials, they were 1,827 elephants in the beginning of 1999 but now, there are just 1700 of them …
union environment minister T R Baalu has announced recently that his ministry is finalising a proposal for setting an exclusive agency to investigate wildlife crimes, including cross border poaching. Speaking on the recent deaths of 13 tigers at Nandankanan Zoo in Orissa he said, "A number of significant inadequacies have …
in accordance with the central government's policy on wildlife protection the Jammu and Kashmir government has banned the shahtoosh shawl trade. The trade is posing a threat to the existence of the Tibetan antelope. Economically, the ban will result in a huge revenue loss for the state, as each shahtoosh …
the government in Australia has severely criticised the listing of koalas ( Phascolarctos cinereus ) as a threatened species under the us law, claiming that the move misrepresents the animal's status. According to the Australian government, the us move would hardly boost conservation efforts and would only affect trade in …
The fatuous Indian elite must also be the most crooked elite in the world. When it comes to linking trade with environment on issues that affect the marauding rich industrialists of the country, you will hear everyone, from the prime minister downwards to the ministers of commerce and finance, shouting …
An international meet of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species ( cites ) of wild flora and fauna, held recently in Nairobi with over 2,500 delegates from 150 countries attending saw Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe buckle under pressure from India and Kenya and agree to delay …
it was another of those meetings where delegates could not see eye-to-eye. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species ( cites ) of wild flora and fauna, held in Nairobi with 2,500 delegates from 151 nations, concluded on April 20, 2000, leaving many satisfied and as many disappointed. Buckling …
