The Kerala Forest Department is preparing for an offensive against poachers in the context of large-scale seizure of ivory and wild cat skins after a long lull. Close on the heels of the seizure of ivory worth Rs 50 lakh from Kochi on December 1, leopard skin worth Rs 700,000 was seized from Palakkad the other day, pointing at the possible operation of inter-state gangs specializing in poaching and smuggling of contraband forest wealth.
Officials of the Forest Department in Palakkad, Malappuram and Idukki districts said that a new pattern in smuggling contraband wild wealth was emerging from the seizures, including those of snake venom other than ivory and cat skin, made in the recent past. They said jungle borders of Kerala with Tamil Nadu and Karnataka were the main centres of activity of poachers.
They also said Bangalore and Kochi had emerged as two of the most important spots on the smugglers’ map. Officials added that the recent seizures were made possible due to the improvement of coordination between the Forest Department and the State police.
Just on Friday, the police seized leopard skin worth Rs 700,000 from nine persons belonging to Palakkad district. The gang was dragged into the net by the police when they had come to sell the skin, taken from a leopard after killing it by poisoning in the Agali jungles, Palakkad.
Officials said they were investigating whether the gang had any connection with those arrested in October, 2008 with a tiger skin worth Rs 300,000 while it was being smuggled from Palakkad to Malappuram. The fresh tiger skin was collected from the forests of Nilambur in Malappuram district.
Officials had then said that there was be a racket operating out of Valanchery in Malappuram district dealing in contraband forest articles. Tiger skins had been seized in January and September, 2008 from these areas and this had strengthened the possibilities of a racket doing trade skins.
In January, 2008, Forest officials had seized a tiger skin from Munnar, Idukki district. The skin was from a sub-adult tiger and officials had said that the cat was killed in the Nilgiri forests of Tamil Nadu, establishing the existence of an inter-state skin trade racket.
In September, 2007, the Vigilance wing of Kerala Forest Department had seized a tiger skin from a village near Nedumbasseri, off Kochi, which came under the Malayattoor Forest Division. The cat was killed two months before the seizure of the skin.
Officials said that there was a noticeable increase in the trade of ivory in which elements from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnatka were active players.
On last Tuesday, the police in Kochi arrested four persons, all from Palakkad district, while they were trying to sell ivory worth Rs 50 lakh in the international market. The very next day, they also arrested a 30-year-old man from Bangalore, who had handed over the ivory to the gang from Palakkad, proving the officials’ suspicions about the Bangalore-Kochi connection of ivory smugglers.
It was only in July last, Forest officials had arrested six persons, members of a gang of poachers and ivory-smugglers, from Adimaly in Idukki district. The ivory was taken from a wild elephant shot to death by the poacher-peddler gang in Kathippara jungle in the Variyamkudy area of the Pooyammkutty Forest range, Idukki district.
On June 12, officials had seized ivory products worth crores of rupees from five persons at Kulathuppuzha, Kollam district. Two of them were dealers in ivory while the rest were poachers. The officials had then recovered several ivory statues, swords, saws, steel rods, axe and a gun used for killing elephants from them.
