Poachers on prowl, tuskers in peril
Despite the rise in elephant poaching in Tamil Nadu forests, very few cases have been registered
By : migrator
Update: 2016-01-13 15:36 GMT
Chennai
The Kerala forest department recently busted a big elephant poaching gang and trader nexus, and arrested the kingpin in the ivory trade Umesh Agarwal from Delhi. Most of the poachers who worked for this crime syndicate were from Tamil Nadu and they confessed to have killed nearly 40 tuskers in Tamil Nadu forests apart from 18 tuskers in Kerala forest limits.
However, shockingly, the Tamil Nadu forest department has registered only three elephant poaching cases in the last three years.
Killing on the rise
Sources in the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), the prime intelligence agency in the country regarding crimes against wild animals, say the elephant poaching cases in Tamil Nadu are on a steep rise.
A senior WCCB official said the poaching cases had come down considerably after Veerappan’s demise, but of late, the cases have gone up again. “Ootty, Meghamalai, Kunoor and Satyamangalam forests are where the arrested poachers prowl,” a senior forest official attached to the Kerala forest vigilance said.
According to WCCB sources, there are no organised gangs of poachers in Tamil Nadu but the organised ivory traders are wooing local tribes and others to poach elephants by paying handsome money to them.
“There is collusion of local forest officials with these traders. Locals smuggle out the ivory after cutting them to pieces or as a whole tusk and the traders collect them before passing on to ivory carvers based in Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur,” a senior official attached to WCCB said.
Inaction
Sources in WCCB said that despite passing on several actionable inputs regarding elephant poaching to Tamil Nadu forest personnel, no action had been taken.
“Many cases of poaching go unreported and no case is registered. When Tamil Nadu forest department sat idle on the information given by WCCB, Kerala forest department took the lead and conducted ‘Operation Shikar’ to bust a prominent gang. Apart from shooting elephants, people are also killing elephants using electrical fencing and through poisoning,” the official added.
Worrying web of poachers
Before the ivory trade was prohibited in 1990 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), three-fourth of the raw ivory in the world used to be nestled in the carving workshops of Asia.
- Each tusk of an average sized elephant could weigh anywhere between 25 to 40 kg
- The cost of 1 kg of ivory in black market is about Rs 1.32 lakh
- Kerala forest department seized 550 kg of ivory from the poachers and traders as part of Operation Shikar recently
- As per rough estimates, the gang arrested by Kerala forest officials had traded nearly 800 kg of ivory from TN alone
- Poachers are active in both sides of Western Ghats
- Carved ivory is mainly smuggled to countries like Japan and China to decorate the houses of the rich
- Some jewelleries in Tamil Nadu and Kerala are also said to be bulk purchasers
Elephant found dead
A 15-year-old wild tusker was found dead under mysterious circumstances at a village near Mettupalayam on Wednesday. The carcass was found by the villagers of Karumbanoor, police said. There was no external injury on the pachyderm and both the tusks were intact. The reason for the death would be known only after post-mortem, they said.
Visit news.dtnext.in to explore our interactive epaper!
Download the DT Next app for more exciting features!
Click here for iOS
Click here for Android