ED on money trail to curb poaching

The Telegraph , Friday, April 07, 2017
Correspondent : Pankaj Sarma
Guwahati, April 6: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has launched an investigation to track the money trail in rhino poaching cases in Assam.

An official source said the ED has registered a case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in its Guwahati zonal office and begun investigations. This is the first case registered by the ED on rhino poaching in the state.

"The ED has stepped in to probe the money laundering aspect of rhino poaching as a horn now costs crores of rupees in the international market, particularly in China and Vietnam, for its perceived medicinal value," the source said.

The ED will aim to identify and attach the proceeds of the crime generated through poaching of rhinos. "The smuggling of animal parts is a scheduled offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Therefore, the ED has taken up the matter. ED officials will take the assistance of police and forest officials and study copies of FIRs lodged in rhino poaching cases to prepare for a thorough investigation," he said.

The ED has sought details of a rhino poaching incident in the state's Kaziranga National Park last year in which an AK-47 rifle was seized from a suspected poacher by the police. "The ED is likely to question the accused persons arrested in the case to unearth the money trail," he said.

Assam has lost at least 11 rhinos to poachers in the past year and most of them were killed in Kaziranga, which houses two-thirds of the world's one-horned rhino population.

The spurt in rhino poaching in Kaziranga may be attributed to various factors such as astronomical increase in price of rhino horns in the international market in the past few years, easy escape via the Dimapur-Moreh route, availability of illegal firearms in the region, involvement of various insurgent groups in rhino poaching and trade and highly porous boundary of the park.

The Rhino Task Force report of the National Tiger Conservation Authority says rhino poaching is an organised crime, involving national and international gangs, who work in close coordination. It has components of arms smuggling, money laundering, cross-border smuggling, terrorism and international illegal wildlife trade.

"The rhino trade, as revealed during interrogation of arrested poachers, is multi-layered and trans-national. There was no denying that rhino poaching has international connotations and there are long chains crossing many borders of states and countries," the report says.

Last month, Assam forest minister Pramila Rani Brahma had informed the Assembly that the special branch (intelligence wing) of the state police had alerted the forest department about the involvement of the NDFB (S) in rhino poaching. The state police had also found the involvement of Karbi militant groups like the Karbi People's Liberation Tigers in rhino poaching in Kaziranga.

 
SOURCE : https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170407/jsp/northeast/story_144934.jsp#.WOcyl0V97IU
 


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