Green Minute News:
In a landmark judgment in Tamil Nadu, the notorious Bawaria tiger poaching gang has been sentenced to jail. A Judicial Magistrate Court in Tamil Nadu has convicted and sentenced six members of Bawaria gang to three years jail and a penalty under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Finally, the court has granted justice to the national animal, the Bengal tiger!
The Wildlife SOS Anti-Poaching Unit investigators had intercepted this invaluable intelligence about the movement of Bawaria tiger poaching gang from Haryana & Rajasthan to Sathyamangalam in Tamil Nadu, and tracked their movements meticulously by infiltrating the poaching gang and monitoring their nomadic camp sites.
This intercepted intelligence information was passed on to the Tamil Nadu Wildlife Crime Control Bureau who conducted a joint operation to catch the poachers red handed in February 2023. This important verdict comes more than two years after a well-planned covert joint anti-poaching operation by the Tamil Nadu Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (TNWCCB), TN Forest department, state police and Wildlife SOS.
The poachers were intercepted in Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve with many tiger parts like a 10-foot-long tiger skin, one tiger skeleton and further one leopard skeleton. DCF Dr R Kanchana, IFS, Director, TNWCCB and ACF Mahendran coordinated on behalf of the TN Forest Department with support from ACS Supriya Sahu.
Wildlife SOS investigators risked their lives infiltrating the Bawaria poaching community, enabling enforcement teams to act swiftly. On sustained interrogation, the accused revealed locations of concealed hunting devices, leopard skin, snares, knives, spears and tools used to kill & skin the big cats. Active jaw traps & hunting tools were also recovered from the forests of the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve.
“What makes this conviction historic is the scale of the bust but the persistence and dedicated planning that it took to achieve success,” said Kartick Satyanarayan, CEO, Wildlife SOS.” We are grateful to the Tamil Nadu Government and to Supriya Sahu, ACS, Tamil Nadu for taking active interest in tiger protection and TNWCCB team that worked closely with us along with multiple enforcement agencies during the operation and through a long drawn two-year prosecution process to oppose bail applications. Such convictions are exceedingly rare in India’s wildlife crime cases, where conviction rates remain dismally low despite high levels of poaching.”
DCF, Dr R Kanchana, IFS stated, “This was the first case handled by the TNWCCB and was possible with the reliable intelligence provided by Wildlife SOS. Tiger poaching is driven by international demand for their body parts used in traditional medicine and luxury markets. This conviction demonstrates the power of collaboration between government agencies and NGOs active in the field to protect India’s wildlife. This is a historic day for all of India.”
The six poachers, caught red-handed in the Sathyamangalam Tiger Range of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, will now serve their sentences in Coimbatore Central Jail. This is one of the very few successful convictions in India’s history of wildlife crime, where conviction rates are alarmingly low despite rampant poaching.
India is home to nearly 3,000 tigers, over half of the world’s remaining wild population. The Bengal tiger, listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, receives the highest degree of protection. Yet poaching remains one of the gravest threats to their survival. This conviction, resulting from joint action and sustained legal effort, represents a rare and precedent-setting victory in the fight against wildlife crime.