How State Fisheries Provisions Complement Wildlife Law in Protecting the Listed Marine Species?

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Introduction

The menace of illegal wildlife trafficking is primarily understood in the context of terrestrial species from a layperson’s perspective. However, the definition of ‘wildlife’ under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 (WLPA) includes aquatic life and their habitat. The WLPA, in its current form, protects marine species like sea turtles, sea cucumber, sea fans, sea horses, some species of sharks and rays, corals, mollusca, etc., under its Schedules. In addition to these, ITCHS Based Import Export Policy provides for … Read More

What Can Media Reports Tell Us about Illegal Wildlife Trade? A Case Study from India

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Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is a major threat to numerous wildlife species and ecosystems across the world, with established global links to organised criminal activities and an annual value encompassing billions of dollars. Media reports function as an untapped reservoir of publicly available records that can be utilised to understand the nature and scale of this trade.

A report, “Media-Reported Wildlife Poaching and Illegal Trade in India 2020,” was published by the Wildlife Conservation Society-India. It provides a comprehensive overview … Read More

Raid to Rescue Freshwater Turtles, Malda, West Bengal

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On 12th April 2022, members of the Human & Environment Alliance League (HEAL), led by Jayanta Chakraborty got a turtle dealer arrested in a joint covert operation with the Forest Department at Malda, West Bengal. The operation began with a tip-off by local informers about a trade happening in the Gazole area in Malda. On 10th April 2022, our volunteers posing as buyers interacted with the turtle trader and confirmed his whereabouts.

12 Indian flapshell turtles (Lissemys punctata) and 5 … Read More

Horrific Killings of Fishing Cats in Howrah, West Bengal

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On 20th January 2022, local conservationist Chitrak Pramanick was informed of the killing of three female Fishing Cats in Bagnan, Howrah district. The ​carcasses were dumped at one place with the legs tied with plastic ropes. No injury marks were visible on the bodies and from the condition of the carcasses, it appeared that they were killed over a period of 3-4 days, probably by poisoning. The shocking incident seems to be a symbolic display of mockery against long term … Read More

The Offence of Illegal Possession under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972

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Wildlife trafficking is the fourth largest transnational crime after arms, drugs, and human trafficking as per United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. When it comes to South Asia, India is considered as the source country for the wild species and its body parts. The World WISE database shows 1000 to 62,000 seizures reported by India from 2004 to 2015. The Wildlife (Protection Act), 1972 is the primary legislation that protects the species listed under Schedule I to IV of … Read More

Killing Fields at Bortir Beel, near Kolkata, West Bengal

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A vast wetland near Kolkata was found to be killing fields for hundreds of birds every day, many of which fly in from thousands of kilometres away. Our team unearthed a large racket of commercial poachers operating in Bortir Beel near Neelgunj, North 24 Paraganas, North of Kolkata. The scale of bird trapping and sale in local markets here was much larger than other bird trapping activities we had experienced earlier.

Tipped off by one of our members, we first … Read More

India’s Conservation Challenges

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Wildlife conservation at crossroads

An interview with Dr. K. Ullas Karanth

Dr Ullas Karanth, a Senior Scientist with the international NGO, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), is a world-renowned wildlife biologist.  In a wide-ranging interview with wildlife and conservation filmmaker, Shekar Dattatri, he outlines the basic problems that beset wildlife conservation in India’s human dominated landscape, and shares his views on preserving these last wild places.

(This is an updated version of an interview that was first published under the title … Read More

Hunting Festivals of West Bengal — An Untold Story of Wildlife Massacre

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Ritualistic Hunting — The Silent Wildlife Killer of West Bengal

HEAL has been documenting South Bengal’s hunting festivals since 2016 and working with enforcement authorities to put an end to this indiscriminate mass killing of endangered wildlife.

This is the earlier documentation of their work on CI. 

All of us are acutely aware of the hunting of megafauna connected with the multi-billion dollar illegal wildlife trade. Many of us also know of the problem of hunting that persists in the … Read More

Is It Time to Rethink Wildlife Crime and its Data In India?

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COVID-19 emerged as an endemic zoonotic disease and has now become a pandemic that poses a critical threat to global health security. Over the past several years, humanity has faced a number of zoonotic diseases such as Ebola, Hanta, Influenza A (H1N1), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and now COVID-19. It is estimated that the top 56 zoonotic diseases are responsible for 250 crore cases of human illness and 27 lakh deaths worldwide each year. Researchers from the … Read More

Trade in Dolphin Oil and Body Parts in Central West Bengal

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South Asian River Dolphin, also known as Ganges River Dolphin (Platanista Gangetica) is an endangered species found in Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna river systems in India and Bangladesh. It is listed as Endangered by IUCN and protected as Schedule I species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. It is also the National Aquatic Animal of India and the focus of a number of conservation projects.

Around mid-2019, Human and Environment Alliance League (HEAL), a conservation focused NGO in Kolkata, started receiving news of … Read More

River Linking Project Threatens Decade-long Success Story Of Panna Tiger Reserve

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Panna’s success story is now a conservation case study in other tiger range countries where efforts are ongoing to increase tiger numbers.

Every monsoon the stunning Dundhwa Seha gorge in the middle of the Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, comes alive with a spectacular waterfall. Even during the drier months, the rocky outcrop is a refuge for wildlife looking to escape the grueling summer heat of Bundelkhand.

In this deep gorge, Panna recorded its first litter of tigers on this … Read More

Bycatch Mortality and Poaching of Ganges River Dolphins in Malda District, West Bengal

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On the morning of November 3, 2019, I witnessed the bycatch mortality of a sub-adult Ganges River Dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica), measuring 2.75′ feet and about 22 kg, in a drift gillnet set for catching fish near Jotkasturi, Panchanandpur, Malda, West Bengal. A Wallago attu catfish was also caught in the gillnet. The fishermen who had landed the dolphin said that it might have got accidentally entangled. Usually, in such cases, fishermen fear penalties being imposed, and are not … Read More

Increased Poaching During Lockdown, Not the Virus, is the New Threat to Tigers

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A note on COVID-19 detected in a tiger in the Bronx Zoo.

Having retired after working for 30 years with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which also runs the Bronx Zoo, news reports about COVID-19 being detected in a tiger at the zoo brought back memories of its famed Tiger Mountain exhibit, the tigers like Nadia displayed in it, and, more importantly, many of the keepers, veterinarians and curators, whose dedication is unmatched in the zoo world.

However, I do believe … Read More

Uncovering India’s Illegal Jackal Trade

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Religious beliefs in superstition, coupled with extensive online advertisements, have helped sustain local and transnational markets in a talisman called the ‘jackal horn’. In a recent study published in Journal of Threatened Taxa, scientists from the Wild Canids–India Project team document that the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (Government of India) has seized 126 skins, 8 tails, more than 370 ‘jackal horns’, 16 skulls and two live jackals between 2013 and 2019. The findings indicate that the illegal wildlife trade … Read More

Palm Civet Poached In Morigaon, Assam

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A palm civet (either common or masked, id unclear) was killed by villagers near my residence at Dharamtul this morning, inspite of my repeated requests to leave the animal alone. It was spotted on a tree in the neighborhood, and I left the spot after telling them that it will go away after dark. After about two hours I heard a commotion and rushed there but found that it had already been killed. The white ring on the tail confuses … Read More