BHOPAL: The environment crime wing of International Criminal Police Organization - Interpol has issued red corner notice against JaiyTamang, 42, a resident of Nepal taking cognisance of an application moved by special task force (STF) of the state forest department.
Tamang is wanted by MPSTF (Forest) in connection with poaching of a radio-collared tiger from Satpura tiger reserve in state's Hoshangabad district and hundreds of pangolins from other parts of the state.
He is also alleged to be a part of a global syndicate - comprising Myanmar and Chinese nationals - involved in poaching of tigers, smooth-coated otters, turtles and other near extinct wildlife species from the state.
There were regular inputs on seizure of hides of tigers (apparently poached from protected areas of MP) in countries like Ethiopia and Nepal, but this is for the first time that the state government has approached Interpol.
Officials involved in the operation believe that a breakthrough into the international syndicate of wildlife smugglers would help them expedite investigations into many cases that had hit a roadblock following restrictions at international borders. Some of the cases are pending for over a decade.
MPSTF has already sent a dossier of 'most wanted foreign nationals' to Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), which is National central bureau (NCB) for Interpol in India. NCB India had forward this report to Interpol's general secretariat headquarters located in Lyon (France).
In January, Interpol had contacted MP government for details about JaiyTamang, after his arrest by MPSTF from Delhi's MajnukaTila area for trading in pangolins scales and tiger hides in October 2015. He had secured bail from a local court in the MP immediately after the arrest.
MPSTF moved high court challenging the bail and got it cancelled in February 2016. He had been on run since then. MPSTF chief RiteshSirothia - who bagged an international award for his initiates against the wildlife crime recently -had played a key role in his arrest. More than 100 people associated with the poaching gang have been arrested by his team so far.
"Interpol headquarters had sent a communication to us via NCB India. They wanted details on Tamang," said an MPSTF officer.
Tamang is said to be a middleman between wildlife traders in MP and foreign countries. The emerging coordination between MPFD and Interpol is being cited as an encouraging effort towards curbing wildlife crime looking at previous actions where some of the investigations having international ramifications were back-burnered.
