Smuggling of wild animals on rise again, say officials

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, May 12, 2015: Smuggling of wild animals and their body parts has again started adding to the worries of officials from various agencies at airports across India.

According to officials posted at the airports, recent cases have shown that smuggling of wild animals has again started gaining pace. According to sources, after almost two years, officials are seeing a frequency in capture of animals and their parts in such large numbers. Flyers are being arrested for trying to smuggle wildlife animals and their parts to various countries, including Malaysia.

Around 11:30 am on March 24 this year, officials noticed a suspected baggage during screening at the Mumbai airport. When they called the owner Thimarayappa Murthy, he initially said these were normal packets. However, when Customs officials and Central Industrial Security Force officials opened it, they found 161 tortoises stacked inside. According to Customs officials, Murthy was supposed to smuggle these tortoises to Malaysia by Malaysia Airlines flight number MH-195.

Similarly, Customs department staff seized two suitcases filled with 183 turtles at the Mumbai airport on April 10. They were being smuggled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Customs people also arrested two passengers for trying to smuggle these tortoises.

According to a senior official of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, officials have seen spurt in cases over the past couple of months indicating that the trend of smuggling animals and their products is making a comeback after almost two years.

“In the past two months, officials at various airports across India have foiled smuggling of more than 700 tortoises. Now, we have alerted agencies deployed at the airports, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, etc about this increase in smuggling incidents,� a senior official of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau told Mail Today but did not wish to be named.

It is not only tortoises but peacock and deer horns that are being smuggled from India through the air route. On April 13, CISF officials at the Bangalore airport found a suspicious item in the bag of a Korean lady. Upon being checked, the officials found deer horns that she was trying to carry with her on the flight.

Similarly, on April 21, in course of screening, officials at the Cochin airport discovered 80 kg of peacock feathers valued around Rs20 lakh in the international market. These were concealed inside towels in the checked-in baggage of a man, hailing from Chennai, just as he was about to board the flight early in the morning, a Customs press release said. Same day, officials also seized 28 tortoises.

“In many cases we have seen that smugglers do not use the Delhi airport to smuggle a wildlife animal but prefer Kolkata airport. The animals are smuggled to Southeast Asia for food and drug purposes. A tortoise is worth anything between Rs.10,000 and Rs.1,00,000 in the international market while a peacock feather fetches around Rs.25,000 per piece. Similarly, one can be richer by Rs.40,000 for a real deer horn,� an airport official said.

 

Courtesy: Indiatoday