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 seizure of thousands of butterflies and moths from 2 German nationals at the Delhi airport on August 15 has prompted the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) to frame an order under the Export Trade Control Rules to ban the export of all genetic material. Says R M …
A report on the illegal wildlife trade in the country by a special committee formed by the MEF has galvanised the ministry into considering several new options to control poaching. The high-powered committee, chaired by S Subramanian, founder of the National Security Guards, submitted its report to the MEF in …
WHEN undercover agents from the Indian branch of Trade Record Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC) captured 475 kg of tiger bone and 13 pelts in 1993, they exposed more than an international poaching operation. There, for the entire world to see, lay the shattered truth about Project …
A MAJOR bird-smuggling racket was literally uncovered on the tarmac of New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport. Just before four "abnormal" packages wrapped in gunny were loaded on to a Pakistan International Airlines flight for Dubai, curious customs officials pounced on them and found that they were packed with more …
THE TRADE sanctions imposed by the United States on Taiwan for the latter's alleged reluctance in cracking down on trafficking in tigers and rhinoceroses is bound to further fuel the debate over use of the levers of trade as a means of enforcing environmental discipline. Predictably, the US move has …
THE British chapter of Friends of the Earth began with a blaze of publicity: opposing the fur trade and getting pictures on the front pages of newspapers by returning thousands of "non-returnable" bottles. From these beginnings, FoE grew steadily, recruiting student radicals and campaigning on everything from dirty rivers to …
IN A CLASSIC tussle between conservation and tourist revenue, anthropologist Richard Leakey was compelled to resign as chairperson of the Kenyan Wildlife Service, following a campaign unleashed against him by William Ole Ntimama, the powerful Kenyan minister of local government. Ntimama said the local population in or near Kenya's national …
Ministry of Environment and Forests constituted on May 24, 1994, a committee to look into the issues relating to illegal trade in wildlife species. The committee was requested to look into the issues related to the illegal trade in wildlife and suggest ways and means to improve the existing control …
A BHUTANESE princess, Deiky Wang-chuck, was arrested in Taiwan for trying to smuggle 22 Asian rhinoceros horns into the country, in the largest ever seizure of such horns (New Scientist, October 16, 1993). Taiwanese authorities say Wang-chuck admitted she expected to sell the horn -- weighing 14 kgs -- for …
ZIMBABWE has been dehorning rhinos for almost a year in a desperate attempt to save them from poachers. The country's rhinoceros population has declined from 2,000 a year ago to less than 500 today. The animal is sought for its horn, which is coveted as an aphrodisiac in the Far …
THE VICUNA, South America's graceful camelid coveted for its soft, silky hair, is falling prey to well-organised gangs of international rustlers "working for brokers within Latin America who then ship the fibre in bales to Europe and Asia", according to an expert with Conacs, Peru's quasi-government agency for camelids, which …
Wildlife officials recently disclosed they had confiscated a 100 kg consignment of the wool of the endangered Tibetan antelope in June. The contraband, which was seized in New Delhi, had been smuggled in from Nepal. Authorities estimate 2,000 kg of the wool was smuggled into Leh and Srinagar last year, …
TWO HOARDS of banned animal skins and bones, worth about Rs 3.5 crore in the international market, were seized in Delhi on August 30 and September 1. The seizures exemplify the intelligence-gathering skills acquired by the Indian arm of the Trade Record Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC), …
CHINA -- one of the world's largest markets for tiger and rhinoceros parts -- has imposed a ban on the trade of rhino horns and tiger bones. These substances are no longer to be used in medicines, though the ban will be delayed by six months to allow liquidation of …
FREE trade in ivory may not be environment-friendly, but neither is a ban, according to a research paper published by economist Timothy Swanson in Economic Policy. He argues that though bans may effectively protect oceanic species, they do not work in the case of elephants. Swanson explains this is because …
AFTER a successful swoop on a dusty April afternoon on some poachers in the Keladevi forests near Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR), a posse of nine forest guards in a Jeep found their way blocked by a log. They got out to clear the road and were ambushed by armed members …
THE TIGER census has been used for long as a convenient official yardstick to measure the success of national park management. But a dispute on the exact tiger population has set a census under way in Ranthambore national park that has the authorities on edge. Since Project Tiger was launched …
HUGE PROFITS are the main reason for the recent spurt in tiger poaching. A Royal Bengal tiger is a walking goldmine because its skin and bones are worth Rs 4.5 lakh. And, there is money to be made at every stage in the illegal tiger trade. Tiger skins have traditionally …
Why has park protection become so difficult? The government has banned villagers from entering the forest but without giving them an alternative. When they force their way in, claiming it is their right, we are authorised to stop them. But how effective are such powers without weapons? We can arrest …
