DISPLAY OF SEIZED WILDLIFE PARTS BY BENGALURU SOUTH DIVISION POLICE ON NOV 28, 2020
Green Minute News:
Bengaluru, being the global hub and destination for organized trading in wildlife pars, witnesses one more shocking seizure of nails and skins of big carnivores and herbivores. In a major catch of wildlife parts in the country, police have seized nails of tigers, leopards, jackals and pangolins. They have also seized paws of jungle cats and claws of sloth bears. Further, the head of a jackal too has been recovered. According to police officials, the buyers were reportedly “jewelry stores” in the city who had come forward to buy the wildlife parts which are worth crores of rupees in the international market.
The Huge List of Seized Parts are:
- 400 Leopard Nails
- Six Tiger Nails
- Seven Pangolin Nails
- Three Sloth Bear Claws
- One Jackal skin
- One Jackal head
- One Blackbuck skin
- Two Jungle Cat Paws
On Saturday (November 28, 2020), the Bengaluru South Division Police, on a tip off from an informer, swooped on the poachers-cum-sellers when they were being sold to jewelers in the southern part of the city. All the seized parts were verified as genuine by forest officials, said Chennamannakere Achukattu Police.
FOUR POACHERS, TWO FROM KARNATAKA AND TWO FROM ANDHRA PRADESH ARRESTED BY BENGALURU SOUTH DIVISION POLICE
Meanwhile, Bengaluru Police are investigating the matter and looking into the antecedents of the four poachers who claim to be first time offenders. Two poachers are from Hunsur near Nagarhole Tiger Reserve. The accused are Prashant Kumar and Karthik from Hunsur. And this is not the first time, people hailing from local tribes have been held for trading in tiger, leopard and elephant parts.
POACHERS FROM AP
The other two poachers are from Madanpalle, Andhra Pradesh. They are Pramila Reddy and Sai Kumar. All the four were arrested on Kathriguppe Main Road in Banashankari-III Stage when they were waiting for potential buyers.
According to Police, most seized parts are from Nagarhole and Bandipur areas while the skin of blackbuck are from areas like Tumakuru bordering Andhra Pradesh.
FURTHER PROBE NEEDED
Presently, police are checking their crime records, if any, both with police and forest departments. Further, police will be probing the buyers too if they were into regular purchase of wildlife parts and maybe, had any dealings with organized traders.
Preliminary investigations by police have revealed that they were selling the wildlife parts to certain goldsmiths and jewelry shops in the city who had a regular clientele for such jewels embedded with wildlife parts.
BENGALURU TURNS HUB
Last February, the RMC Yard Police in the City had seized 142 tiger claws from two people who were involved in a tiger poaching racket. The two accused, residents of Nagamangala were part of a poaching gang in Bandipur. They were apprehended when they were waiting for their customers at the Yeshwantpur Flower Market. Both had obtained the tiger claws from their contacts in Hunsur.
Police and Forest officials say with Hunsur being close to Bandipur and Nagarhole national parks, there are many poachers based here who send the poached tiger, leopard and elephant parts regularly to Bengaluru for domestic consumption as also sending it outside the country.
400 NAILS MEANS 25 LEOPARD KILLINGS
Expressing total shock at the massive seizures, wildlife activists and conservationists wonder at the ease with which carnivores and herbivores are being hunted and killed by local people.
Vijay Nishanth, Urban conservationist said, “The seizures of deer horns, ivory tusks, leopard skins, tiger nails and other parts are becoming frequent and regular in Bengaluru. This denotes rampant hunting as also organized networks dealing with selling of wildlife parts. With Bengaluru turning into a global hub for this, there is need for more vigil at airports, intelligence gathering on such networks who are involved in sale of wildlife parts.”
Adding to this, Chikkamagaluru honorary Wildlife Warden G Veeresh says, “There is need for in depth probe to ascertain the genuineness of the wildlife part and if so, then how many leopards have been killed? As the SEIZURE of 400 Nails means 25 leopards would have been killed. This is a very serious issue. This should be investigated thoroughly. Efforts should be made to recover other parts from poachers. There will be lot of parts of animals whose skin or claws or nails has been seized. A high-level inquiry is necessary as local communities are in cahoots with organized networks in Bandipur and Nagarhole national parks.”
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