Involvement of international wildlife smuggling ring suspected

The Eluru police in Andhra Pradesh nabbed three persons for allegedly transporting two caged baby orangutans in a car last Wednesday. One culprit is at large, sources say.

A highly placed police source in West Godavari told The Hindu that the car with the animals entered Andhra Pradesh through the Odisha border and passed through a toll gate near Visakhapatnam at 7.25 p.m. on Tuesday. The car is registered in the name of Mohamme Abdul Gaffar of Hyderabad.

The police, who have since sent detectives to Kolkata to make more arrests, are investigating the possibility that an international wildlife trafficking racket is spreading its wings in the southern States via Kolkata and Odisha. The two animals rescued in Eluru are believed to have been smuggled across international borders.

“We have sent teams to West Bengal to nab a gang involved in smuggling endangered wildlife. We will come out with the details in two or three days,” the source said on the condition of anonymity.

Native to Indonesia

Orangutans, native to Indonesia, have not been bred in India. “We do not have orangutan breeding centres in India. The species do not have a record of breeding in Indian conditions,” G. Ramalingam, curator of the Visakhapatnam zoo, said.

Recent incidents indicate that an international wildlife smuggling gang is based in Kolkata.

Last year, Customs personnel in that city arrested a gang of 55 smugglers with several chimpanzees, marmosets, capuchin monkeys and many exotic birds. Kolkata has been identified as a major hub for wildlife trafficking, says the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau of the Union Environment, Forests and Climate Change Ministry.

West Bengal’s porous borders with Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh are said to be aiding wildlife smuggling. Animals are mostly transported by road in private vehicles to South Indian States, the bureau says.

Import, trading and possession of exotic species are illegal under the Indian Customs Act, 1960, and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. Sumatran and Bornean orangutan falls under Schedule 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

(With additional reporting

by B.V.S. Bhaskar

by Rajahmundry)