IMPHAL/GUWAHATI: A large consignment of animal parts was seized by the Assam Rifles in Manipur's Chandel district on Monday, once again pointing to the the thriving poaching racket that operates in the North-East. It is suspected that the animal parts were being smuggled to South-east Asian markets that have a huge demand for tiger bones and skin.
On Monday personnel from Assam Rifle's 20th battalion seized the parts which included two tiger skulls, two tiger paws, 16 kg of tiger bones, 340 kg of pangolin shell and 191 deer antlers from a truck at a check post in Bongyang in Chandel district.
The consignment also included 2.8 lakh actephide tablets worth Rs 4 lakh in the Indian market. Sources said the price of the contraband drug could gop up to four times in the grey market.
The truck was heading toward Moreh, a business town in Manipur bordering Myanmar. Sources said that once the truck reached Moreh, the consignment would have been smuggled to Myanmar from where it would have headed to East and Southeast Asian markets, like China and Thailand.
China is the biggest consumer of tiger parts in world, where the bones and body parts are used for traditional Chinese medicines.
Wildlife crime experts said that with the wild tiger population being virtually wiped out from the jungles in China, the soaring demand for tiger parts is being met from Myanmar and the Northeastern of India. Also the porous international border that the Northeastern region shares with neighbouring countries like Myanmar, has made smuggling of wildlife parts and contraband drugs from the region easier.
In December last year, Assam Rifles seized 75 kg of red sanders along with elephant tusks, trunks and jaw parts, deer skins and deer antlers also at Bongyang village. Incidentally the consignment was on its way to Myanmar through Moreh. In January this year about 30 truck loads of red sanders were seized by Assam Rifles also in Moreh.
Wild life experts suspected that the tigers and deer could have been poached in north Indian forests. "It is a possibility that these were poached in eastern Uttar Pradesh. This seems to be a new route that the poachers are using to smuggle out animal parts to South-east Asia. The way rhinos and tigera are being killed in Assam, West Bengal forests are under threat as well. But north Bengal hardly has any wild life left for poaching," said Pranabesh Sanyal, former director of the Sunderban Tiger Reserve.
The Moreh-Myanmar and Assam-Siliguri routes are the major conduits for trade in illegal wildlife parts from the Northeastern region, whose rich biodiversity is already under thread from poachers.
Even other illegal traders from others states in the country also uses the Moreh-Myanmar and Assam-Siliguri route for smuggling out wildlife parts and red sanders from Andhra Pradesh.
Police in Kokrajhar district seized large quantity of antlers and red sandalwood pieces from a saw mill in Gosaigaon.
