South Asia’s First Integrated Wildlife Law Enforcement Strategy to be Developed in India — TRAFFIC

by Shubhobroto Ghosh 

New Delhi: Senior delegates from various enforcement and intelligence agencies of the eight South Asian countries plus China, Russia, and Myanmar will meet next week to develop a cross cutting operational strategy to curb the growing menace of illegal wildlife trade in the region.

The Integrated Investigative Capacity Development and Operational Planning Meeting in New Delhi, India, taking place from 1-5 July 2013 is a critical step to mobilize co-ordinated action against wildlife crime by the South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN). The event is being led by INTERPOL’s Environmental Crime Programme and the Government of India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, with additional technical support from the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), and TRAFFIC.

Illegal wildlife trade is perceived to be a high profit and low risk activity and has grown to become the fifth largest illegal global trade after narcotics, counterfeiting, human trafficking and oil trafficking. Besides driving many endangered species towards extinction, illegal wildlife trade strengthens criminal networks, undermines national security, and poses increasing risks to global health. Since illegal wildlife trade extends beyond national borders, a regional strategy and international co-operation are needed to address its growing influence.

Against this background, this specialized capacity development and operation planning meeting will aim to identify regional priorities in wildlife law enforcement, implement a common approach for regional operations and bridge communication gaps between agencies at the national and regional levels. This meeting will also help to strengthen SAWEN as an institution by connecting focal points and specialists with other national colleagues and government representatives. The initiative will help enhance enforcement capacity for the conservation of wild tigers and other Asian big cats, linking up with INTERPOL’s Project Predator. The capacity development and subsequent operational planning will allow participants to guide the international community with targeted regional strategies for information strategies and effective investigations.

At least three officials from each of the South Asian countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) representing one or more enforcement agencies, including the police, wildlife departments, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, INTERPOL National Central Bureaus, environmental agencies, SAWEN focal points and Customs agencies are expected to attend the meeting as well as delegates from China and Russia.

Dr Shekhar Kumar Niraj, Head of TRAFFIC in India said: “TRAFFIC is very excited about this meeting and hopeful that concrete plans for combating wildlife crime will emerge from it – the inputs from INTERPOL and India’s CBI, along with other experts, will play a critical role in assisting SAWEN to realize its full potential as a best-practice law enforcement network.”

The meeting will largely focus on capacity development of tools for the support of investigative operations, intelligence-led best practices such as controlled deliveries, questioning wildlife smugglers, risk management and ethics and professionalism in building wildlife cases.

“The meeting is crucial for SAWEN since one of its main mandates is to bring together the eight South Asian countries for fighting wildlife crime. A concentrated global response in the form of a well committed and focused operational plan by the countries and SAWEN is necessary to stop illegal wildlife trade” said Dr Niraj.

Generous financial support from both the US Department of State and USAID is acknowledged in making this landmark training event possible.

For more information, please contact Shubhobroto Ghosh at +91-9310480645/011-41504786. You can also visit our websites — Traffic and Traffic India.

About TRAFFIC

TRAFFIC was established in 1976 and since then it has developed a considerable international reputation for helping to identify and address conservation challenges linked to trade in wild animals and plants. In India, TRAFFIC carries out research and provides analysis, support and encouragement to efforts aimed at ensuring that wildlife trade is not a threat to conservation of nature in India. TRAFFIC in India works as a programme division of WWF–India, the largest conservation organization in India. TRAFFIC is a strategic alliance of WWF and IUCN.

About the author

Shubhobroto Ghosh
The author is Senior Programme Officer, TRAFFIC India.

Source: http://www.conservationindia.org/news/traffic-india

Why thriving wildlife trade should not surprise anyone

Jay Mazoomdaar | Mar 11, 2013
The customary headlines that follow every CITES meeting were reeled out last week after a string of media releases from Bangkok on 7 March. There is global anguish over the shocking numbers — seizures amounting to 1425 dead tigers from 12 tiger range countries between 2000 and 2012, or, more than two killing a week.

The Indian media highlighted the five illegal trading hotspots in Delhi, Kolkata (Sunderbans), Ramnagar (Corbett), Balaghat (Kanha-Pench) and Sathyamangalam (the Western Ghats) which retained its notoriety even after the killing of brigand Veerappan and disbanding of his ivory hunting gang nearly a decade ago.

Since 2000, more than two tigers have been poached every week.
Pic courtesy: CITES/WWF

A spurt in tiger poaching that claimed at least 34 big cats in the first five months of 2012 continues across the country. Since mid-November, three tigers have died of electrocution in live-wire traps set by poachers in and around Bandhavgarh’s Khitoli range. Since mid-January, suspected poisoning has killed four tigers in Karnataka’s Nagarhole. Last week, a one-year-old tigress was rescued from a metal jaw-trap in Dudhwa, Uttar Pradesh, with a damaged paw.

Since 2000, more than two tigers have been poached every week. Pic courtesy: CITES/WWF
While tiger mortality usually makes big news, leopards are being taken out at such regularity that making even a guesstimate has become a challenge. Since 2010, six dozen tigers and nearly 500 leopards have fallen to poachers. That is just the official count.

Compared to big cat pelts and bones, rhino horns command a much higher price. After a lull during 1999-2006, the lucrative trade made a strong comeback in Assam. In 2012, more than 22 rhinos were poached. This year’s toll has already reached 10, prompting a shoot-at-sight order against poachers.

Annually, up to 30,000 star tortoises worth several crores of rupees are harvested in our country. An estimated 50-70 per cent of India’s otter population has been hunted for their pelts. The paintbrush industry’s demand for 8-12 quintals of hair has killed more than a million mongooses – only 10-20g hair is obtained from each — since the 1990s.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to protect wild animals with physical vigil unless we convert open forests into fenced-in zoos. Even then, a large number of wildlife will continue to roam outside. The most effective deterrence to poaching is the fear of getting caught, prosecuted and punished. But after four decades of the Wildlife (Protection) Act and a ban on hunting, how are the syndicates still so active?

There are at least three reasons. We are yet to build the capacity to adequately combat poaching; the administration is mostly in denial; and the powers that be have strong incentive to back wildlife trade.

On paper, we have created the Special Tiger Protection Force in a number of reserves. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has even introduced a high-tech thermal imagery system for round-the-clock surveillance last year and proposed to procure drones to watch over remote forest terrain.

But far from compensating for quality human resource, any sophisticated initiative depends on it for success. Yet, there is no initiative to build a motivated, trained and agile workforce and adequately incentivise it for consistent field results.

Every forest administration needs eyes and ears on the ground. Since the average bureaucrat is not a natural sleuth or an earthy man-manager, field officers should be handpicked for wildlife divisions. Every division also needs a dedicated legal cell with trained staff to ensure that cases do not fall through when rare arrests are made. But even six years after the creation of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, intelligence gathering and prosecution remains inadequate.

Unsurprisingly, the culture of denial is so deeply embedded in forest bureaucracy that most officers refuse to accept that poachers continue to be a threat in their territory. It is standard practice to play the jurisdiction card and disown animals that step out of park limits. Since officers in charge of less-protected areas neither have the resources to fight poachers nor are expected to, nobody is held accountable for poaching of, say, tigers in the Ramnagar forests adjacent to Corbett or rhinos across the road from Kaziranga.

When a suspicious carcass is found, the management tries to get away by attributing the death to anything — from food poisoning to snake bite – anything short of a suicide. Last year, an internal note of the Environment ministry pointed out that “many cases are straightaway declared as occurring due to natural causes or accidents without a detailed investigation to establish the same,” adding that “every case of tiger and leopard death would be henceforth treated as a case of poaching, unless otherwise proved beyond reasonable doubt”.

But a multi-billion dollar industry cannot bet its fortune on administrative laxity alone. So Veerappan funded political parties in two states for over a decade. Sansar Chand’s famous diary apparently had details of collusion with a number of Delhi’s political big guns. Insurgents protect trees for cover in their forest hideouts but have no qualms clearing Indravati of tigers or Manas of rhinos to fund arms deals.

During the 1980s and 1990s, when a number of prime north-east forests became inaccessible to the administration, more than 550 rhinos were poached. As the law and order condition improved in the late 90s, a shoot-at-sight regime forced an eight-year lull, particularly in Kaziranga, till the 2006 Assembly elections unleashed a cycle of “political reward killing”.

Poachers were back to claim 20 rhinos by 2007. Then again, after the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, around two dozen animals were killed till 2010. In 2011, only one rhino was poached till the Assembly elections in May. Nearly three dozen have been killed since till the Kaziranga administration finally retaliated last Wednesday gunning down two armed poachers.

While shoot-at-sight orders are necessary in places like Kaziranga to match the fire power of former militants joining the trade, this approach suits few other forests in India. Unlike Kaziranga, most of our forests house villages and opening fire at the sight of people in such areas is a recipe for disaster. Building an anti-poaching network based on field intelligence demands a lot of hard work. But there is no alternative if we are serious about protecting our wild.

Source: http://www.firstpost.com/living/why-thriving-wildlife-trade-should-not-surprise-anyone-654771.html

Monkey business

MANEKA GANDHI

If you see a langur tied up in a temple, factory, educational institution or mela, call the police and the wildlife authorities and make sure that arrests are made.

How can you do this to me?

Last month, as I passed by the Defence Ministry, I saw people clustered on a sidewalk and I caught a glimpse of a monkey. I stopped and saw three people making two langurs fight with each other. As soon as they saw me, two of the men ran and so did the government employees who were watching this illegal tamasha.

The langurs climbed a tree. The third man had his pockets searched and, not surprisingly, had a card saying that he was employed by the Defence Ministry to keep rhesus monkeys away. His personal ID card said that his name was Aftab Langurvala.

This is a large Muslim clan that lives in Rohini, Delhi. Their only job is to get langurs from the wild and rent them out to various organisations across Delhi — ministries, schools, hotels, malls. They have, at any given time, over 100 langurs. They are so arrogant that they have named themselves Langurvala as well, and they travel openly on motorbikes with langurs on their shoulders

I called the police. The security in-charge of that wing of the Defence Ministry was called. He clearly did not know the law and tried to defend his recruitment. He was severely reprimanded. The Langurvala was arrested and remanded to jail under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. The langurs are with me and they will be rehabilitated soon, back in the forest.

You will rarely find a madari in the cities now. Most of them are behind bars or have switched professions ever since animal laws started being acted on. But in many cities you will find these langurvalas. You need to have the person arrested and his employer.

According to The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, the langur is a protected species under Schedule II and under the IPC Sections 2, 8, 9, 11, 40, 41, 43, 48, 51, 61, and 62. According to these sections, langurs cannot be owned, traded, bought, sold or hired out. Any violation of this law is liable to a three-year jail term or fine or both.

But many government offices are openly breaking the law by hiring such people and even giving ID cards to the so called “owners” of langurs – who are actually poachers who have taken these langurs from forests. I am told that during the Commonwealth Games the civic agencies deployed 38 langurs .

They are badly fed and kept tied up to gates the entire day. They are starved and kept thirsty. They sit in the sun and rain and cold. Most of these langurs die within a year. The Langurwalas simply get more.

Not only is the langur a protected species, it is also becoming increasingly rare.

The langur is a silver grey monkey with a tail longer than its body, a conspicuous black face, long limbs with black hands and feet. It has a coughing alarm call.

Langurs live in troops that vary from 8 - 20 animals, and are led by a dominant male. All-male groups are also common.

They generally have a favourite roosting tree, to which they retire at the end of the day. The monkeys huddle together and prefer to squat on the extremities of high branches, as a precautionary measure against predators. They are extremely arboreal — which means, that unlike rhesus monkeys, they do not like to come down from the trees at all. They feed in the morning and late afternoon and groom each other in between. Morning is greeted with loud whooping calls and a display of high spirits.

Females attain sexual maturity (3-4 years) earlier than males (6-7 years). The young are born after a gestation period of six months. The mothers usually have one child, and the arrival of the early ones in a troop causes much excitement, with females of all age groups vying with each other to touch and handle the newborn. The mother readily allows this and the infant gets passed on from hand to hand. The young are carried upside down clasped to their mother's belly. By three months they start wandering around and that is when they get picked up by poachers. Any adult that intervenes, responding to the cries of the babies, is beaten with sticks or killed.

The species has suffered tremendously due to habitat degradation. They have to come down to the road and sometimes enter human habitation looking for food, making them vulnerable while crossing the road. They are eaten by leopards, dholes, wolves, jackals and pythons. Poaching and attacks by dogs are also on the rise.

Langurs eat leaves, flowers, fruits and berries. They obtain salt, mineral and trace elements by licking rocks, termite mounds and salt licks. This animal is now fed rotis and whatever rubbish passersby give it.

The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau sent a letter on October 15 to all government departments saying that they cannot hire langurs and that any in service have to be removed immediately. The Bureau has written that “For any violation, besides the handler, the officer of the Ministry responsible for hiring the services of the animal, will be deemed to have contravened the provision of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and will be liable for prosecution under Section 52 of the Act.” The letter adds: “It is therefore requested that langurs, if hired by your Ministry, should be removed from their service immediately and the animals be handed over to the Chief Wildlife Warden of the Government of NCT.”

Langurs are as protected as bears and tigers. Can anyone bring tigers or snakes and get “employment” by the government or private companies for domestic or security purposes?

The Wildlife Crime Bureau has now started raiding these Langurvala families. Many of them are now on the run as criminals and the animals have been confiscated. I have caught 8 langurvalas myself and the court has sent all of them to jail under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, which means that the court is well aware, as are the police, that this is a crime under the Indian laws.

Now you know the law. If you see any langur tied up in a temple, factory, educational institution, mela or any government building, call the police and the wildlife authorities and make sure that arrests are made. Take the langur. Ask the langurvala where he got the animal from so that it can be returned to its forest — otherwise it will die.

The Hanuman langur is a representative of the god Hanuman. Is this the shameful way in which we use our gods?

To join the animal welfare movement,contact

gandhim@nic.in, www.peopleforanimalsindia.org

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/monkey-business/article4294052.ece

Rs 20 lakh lizards new target of poachers in northeast

IMPHAL: It's not only big animals like tigers, rhinos and elephants that are being poached.

Lately, poachers in the northeast have been eyeing a much smaller creature — a reptile species called the tokay gecko — which can be smuggled in bulk and fetches good returns in the grey market. The tokay gecko, a nocturnal Asian lizard growing up to 40cm in length and weighing up to 200gm, is in great demand in some Asian countries for its reported medicinal values. A mature gecko can easily fetch up to Rs 20 lakh.

Poachers are raiding the forests of Manipur that have an abundant populace of the lizard species. Exact numbers are not known since no definite census of the species has been carried out, says experts. But in the past six months, over 70 tokay geckos have been rescued by police, forest officials, activists of the People For Animal (PFA) Thoubal unit and Assam Rifles personnel from various parts of the state.

Although wildlife experts and environmentalists say there is no scientific proof to substantiate the purported medicinal properties of this reptile species, the tokay gecko has become hot property. Even locals seem to have realized that selling a bunch of these can make one a millionaire overnight and want to cash in on the demand.

In fact, such is the craze for the lizard that many have begun rearing the rare reptile species at home. According to Lourembam Biswajit, managing trustee of PFA Thoubal, there have been reports of poor farmers in the valley districts being given baby geckos by smugglers for rearing in a clandestine manner. Once the lizards grow up, they are taken back by the smugglers who pay the farmers handsomely for raising them, says Biswajit.

In the face of the increasing poaching, smuggling and illegal rearing of tokay geckos in Manipur, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau has urged the Union ministry of forest and environment (MoEF) to include the reptile species in the endangered scheduled animals' list under the Protection of Wildlife Act, 1972. Incidentally, the golden gekco, which is reportedly found in some parts of south India, has been incorporated in Schedule I, a list of endangered wildlife animals of the Wildlife Act. "It's high time the tokay gecko gets listed as endangered," says noted wildlife activist Khangembam Shamungou. "This is essential if we are to protect and preserve it better."


Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rs-20-lakh-lizards-new-target-of-poachers-in-northeast/articleshow/17864202.cms