Meera Bhardwaj:
Trading in Tiger parts like bone, nails, teeth, and skin is rampant in the Western Ghat bound states of Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Wildlife activists and conservationists in these states fear a rise in illegal trading in the exclusive tiger habitat of Western Ghats as they say “Tigers are being killed silently through Snaring.” Further, many wildlife criminals or gangs are quietly assisted by local and international trading groups.
As per UN Global Wildlife Crime report for 2007-18, India and Thailand were the main sources for supply of tiger bones. And in India, unfortunately the bones were all sourced from wild tigers. Apart from this, the 2019 TRAFFIC report on the ‘analysis of tiger seizures’ said India topped in the trafficking of tigers and its body parts between 2000-18. On an average, 124 tigers were poached in Asia every year since 2000. In fact, India accounted for 40.5 percent of total seizure incidents in the world.
Now how serious is the situation in India despite strict protection to tigers? Green Minute is citing two cases of tiger trading in Karnataka from the month of March. After Chikkamagaluru seizures, another case of tiger parts seizure has been reported – this is from Haliyal in Uttar Kannada district. The Chikkamagaluru Forest police mobile squad have arrested a rich old resident of this area who was trying to dispose of an old tiger pelt.
THE HALIYAL CASE
On March 10th, the forest police mobile squad arrested Manohar Narayan Thergavunkar and recovered an old tiger pelt. PSI Shobha and other staff including Hemavathi, Krishnaraj Urs, Devaraj, Dinesh and Thimmashetty were involved in the operation where the offender was trapped at Nazigere when he was trying to sell the tiger pelt.
The stuffed and preserved pelt had all the requisite nails which were intact. An influential rich man, Manohar had in possession this pelt without any license and further, he was trying to dispose it off through middle men for a higher price. The accused was produced in the court and remanded to judicial custody. Later the offender was handed over to Haliyal Range for further investigations.
THE CHIKKAMAGALURU CASE
In the earlier case of tiger trading in Chikkamagaluru district, which is home to the Bhadra Tiger Reserve, all body parts of a tiger were seized on March 4th. Even the territorial areas in this district have a good tiger population. The crime branch police wing laid a trap for the traders and caught them with tiger parts near the town railway station. The seized parts included – 8 original tiger nails, 1 canine, 4 teeth, 1 piece of tiger skin and also a jaw set. Further, pieces of bone parts too were recovered from the offenders.
Two people were arrested and the police recovered one swift car (KA 03MU9747). The offenders included – A C Sagar, son of Chaluva, a resident of Arisinaguppe village, Chikkamagaluru and Lokesh S, son of Siidashetty, bakery owner, Yelahanka, Bengaluru.District Crime Branch Inspector Satyanarayana and his team investigated the case and the tiger may have been “snared” to steal its parts. The probe has also revealed the involvement of many people in the wildlife trading network from the neighbouring districts of Mysuru and Hassan.
For further investigations, police have handed over the case to the state forest department. Meanwhile, ACF Muddanna and Range forest officer Swathi of Chikkamagaluru territorial division have taken over the case and started their probe. They have registered a forest offence case against the two offenders under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The accused have been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.
CONTINUING SEIZURES
In the last few years, there have been regular seizures of tiger and leopard parts in Mysuru, Chikkamagaluru, Bengaluru, Belagavi, Chamarajanagar, Kodagu and Hassan. According to forest officials, there are high chances of offenders’ involvement in trading of tiger parts who are supported by a network spread across districts with chain link to neighbouring states.
Chikkamagaluru honorary wildlife warden G Veeresh who has assisted the departments in these cases adds, “Snaring is a silent method of trapping big cats which is very dangerous to the lives of tigers and leopards. Tiger products are in huge demand in international markets of south east Asia and Africa. With China being involved in using tiger parts for traditional medicine, it has encouraged traders to spread their network. Unfortunately, these traders have been observed contacting local villagers and other small time wildlife smugglers for tiger parts.”
NEEDS MORE VIGIL
For the last seven years, only five cases have been booked in Chikkamagaluru district vis-à-vis seizure of tiger products like nails, skull, bones, skin and canines and teeth. In these cases, the traders and hunters have been booked mostly by the police department while in other cases, both police and forest departments have done it jointly. In this regard, both the departments have trapped a few wildlife traders, smugglers and registered cases under relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act,1972.
A major part of the tiger habitat in the Western Ghats needs more vigilance, patrolling and modernisation of equipment to protect and safeguard tigers. And this is true for the Western Ghat bound districts of Karnataka with five tiger reserves as also the southern states of Tamilnadu and Kerala. With wildlife trading rampant in the Western Ghats, conservationists say it’s a worrying time for both forest officials and the frontline forest staff on devising new ways to protect the apex predator.