The Uttar Pradesh police has seized five rare caracals, a medium-—sized wild cat, from Mirzapur allegedly being smuggled to Hyderabad, leading to suspicion that a racket of people who want exotic species in private zoos may be behind this.
“It is extremly rare that such wild cats have been recovered alive from smugglers,” Umendra Sharma, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests said.
Based on a tip off, a team of Uttar Pradesh Police intercepted a Toyota Innova bearing a Hyderabad number, in which five caracals and a leopard cat were being smuggled. They were kept in covered iron cages in the seized vehicle.
The police arrested three persons while two managed to flee from the spot, District Forest Officer K. K. Pandey said.
He said the species itself is very rare to spot in the wild and has so far not even surfaced in camera traps.
Caracals have peculiar ears with long black tufts.
During initial interrogation, the smugglers admitted that they were bringing these cats from Bihar and they were allegedly intended to be taken to Hyderabad.
The police sources refused to give further details as it may hamper the probe.
The recovery of such wild cats has sent the forest department into a tizzy as this may be just tip of the iceberg.
“I have not heard of live cats being smuggled in this fashion. It is extremely important that an agency like Wildlife Crime Control Bureau or CBI take note of this because of alleged involvement of an inter-state gang,” Ramesh Pandey, Chief Conservator of Forest-Saharanpur, who is an expert on tackling wildlife crime and had served in WCCB (Wildlife Crime Control Bureau) said.
Mr Pandey said there is information about people who are setting up illegal private zoos in farmhouses around Hyderabad and Bengaluru where they are keeping exotic species like tortoise, birds etc.
“It is quite possible that such collectors are now getting ambitious and want such large cats in their enclosures. It will become clear only when a pan Indian agency like WCCB and CBI starts an investigation on these links,” he said.
Meanwhile, the sources in the police department said they are on the trail of the person who owned the Innova and would question him on where was he taking these cats and for what purpose.
“I fully agree that these cats could be heading to private zoos around Hyderabad and Bengaluru but details will come out once the investigation is complete. We have some inputs about these private zoos where illegal wildlife is kept,” Shekhar Kumar Neeraj, an IPS officer and country head for TRAFFIC (wildlife trade monitoring network) said.
