After tigers, poachers now target leopards

Times of India , Sunday, September 07, 2008
Correspondent : Staff reporetr
PTI

NEW DELHI: With increased vigilance on the illegal trade of tiger parts, the poaching mafia has shifted its focus on leopards, whose bones fetch the same price as that of tigers in the international market, and are easier to kill because of their "peculiar habitat".

"Tiger bones are used in traditional Chinese medicines as an aphrodisiac but increased vigilance of enforcement agencies on this trade has dwindled its supply. Although tiger parts fetch 20 times higher price than that of leopard but their bones are considered on par," Program Manager of Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) Tito Joseph said.

According to WPSI, about 124 leopards were killed by poachers last year but till August this year, more than 112 leopards have already been slaughtered across the country.

The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) has seized more than 22 leopard skins during the last two months in a sustained operation in northern India with 20 of them coming from Uttarakhand.

In its subsequent investigations, the bureau established direct link of nabbed traders with two notorious poachers - Bharat Bhandari of Chamoli district (Uttarakhand) and Gopi Bawaria of Haryana. Both of them are still absconding.

"Although leopards are killed across the country, the threat is much larger in northern India as major poaching groups are located in the region," Deputy Director WCCB Ramesh Pandey said.

The WCCB investigations also indicate large scale involvement of nomad gangs, especially Bawaria groups in the killing of leopards and tigers.

"They do not stay at one place for long and work in collusion with the local tribes. They have expertise in laying down traps and killing the animals which they share with local tribes," Joseph said.

Unlike tigers, who prefer deep forests, leopards live on the fringe areas. Experts say that sometimes they also kill the cattle of villagers living nearby.

Poachers exploit these man-animal conflict and villagers provide help and guide the smugglers to catch or kill the animal.

"The outskirts of protected areas are not that well guarded. Some times animals wander off to non-protected areas which makes the work of poachers easy," Joseph said.

WCCB officials have informed the forest department in different states about this trend.

"This issue is really serious and we are going to issue an alert to all forest officials to increase vigilance in fringe areas as well," said a WCCB official.

According to an estimate of the Ministry of Environment and Forest, there are about 12,000 leopards in the country. International Union for Conservation of Nature has put the animal in the list of endangered species.

 
SOURCE : Times of India,Sunday, September 07, 2008
 


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