Superstition fuels demand for wildlife articles
A wildlife enforcer said the trap would not have worked
if the enforcers had used a different cover. The skin and teeth had been
sent for forensic examination to ascertain whether they were genuine or
clever fakes.
(Often, skin of slaughtered goats and
calves are finely painted and sold as genuine tiger or leopard skin to
unsuspecting buyers.)
The interrogation of the
suspects, hailing from Tamil Nadu, has thrown light on the growing
“superstition fuelled” demand for pelts, feathers and body parts of rare
and endangered wild species, ranging from tigers and leopards to
monitor lizards, Indian sand boa (snake) and barn owl, in the State, a
relatively recent trend, according to enforcers.
A
set of private profiteers posing as shamans and soothsayers profited
most from the racket. They recommended and often helped their
impressionable followers procure wildlife articles to make potions or
sport as talismans and good luck charms.
The
enforcers said 50 tiger “kills or deaths” had been reported from across
the country till July year. In comparison, there had been only three
seizures during the period.
The low enforcement
figures pointed to the highly clandestine nature of the illegal trade
and the difficulty to infiltrate the network, which facilitated it.
This
year till July, at least four tiger “deaths or kills” had been reported
in Kerala. Three were from Wayanad and one from Nenmara near the
Parambikulam Tiger Reserve.
At least 11 tiger
“deaths or kills” had been reported from Karnataka and two from Tamil
Nadu. They were mostly from Bandipur, Nagarhole and the Mudumalai
forests contiguous to that of Kerala. The enforcers said there could be
more.
They said poachers looking for lucrative big
game, some of them operating from large private estates bordering forest
areas, increasingly preferred concealed crude traps fashioned out of
motorcycle clutch cables and second-hand vehicle parts over country-made
muzzle-loading firearms to kill tigers and leopards.
The
exorbitant price for unblemished tiger skin in Kerala seems to have
induced inter-State poachers to change their method of killing the
predators.
Officials pointed out that forensic
examination of few seized tiger and leopard pelts showed no bullet
founds. Some were found to have been cured using alum, crystallised
aluminium potassium sulphate.
The buyers for tiger
parts in Kerala were mostly well-heeled superstitious persons who
believed that having a tiger skin, claws or teeth in their prayer room
brought prosperity.
They said poaching of tigers and
leopards often peaked during summer when it was relatively easy for
hunters to shoot, trap or poison the cats near watering holes.
Additional Chief Conservator of Forests, Vigilance, Y.S. Yelaki;
Assistant Conservator of Forests, Forest Intelligence Cell, B. Santosh
Kumar; District Forest Officer M. Unnikrishnan; and Forest Range Officer
C.K. Sudheer are heading the anti-wildlife trade operations.
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