The Wild Life Crime Control Bureau has been roped in to step up the probe.
Hyderabad: The Uttar Pradesh police and forest officials, who with the assistance of the TS police and forest department unearthed a smuggling racket in caracals from UP to Hyderabad, recently, found that tiger cubs too are being illegally traded and that the racket is nationwide.
UP divisional forest officer K.K. Pandey, told this newspaper over the telephone: “The racket is spread nationwide. The Wild Life Crime Control Bureau has been roped in to step up the probe. Mirzapur police has arrested two persons so far in the case, including one Faheem. The racket has links to Bihar, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Delhi apart from UP.”
He said the modus operandi of the smugglers is “peculiar”. While one set of people actually catch the wild animals in the protected areas, a different set transports them, and those who receive the stolen animals and sell them are yet a different set.
“We have information that they traded in tiger cubs too. They are taking the help of local tribes. The racket is widespread and their operations are alarming,” Mr Pandey said.
The Wild Life Crime Control Bureau has alerted the Telangana Forest department about the trading of exotic bird species that are named in CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).
“Exotic birds covered under CITES can't be imported,” said T. Uma, Southern Region deputy director of the Wild Life Crime Control Bureau.
A TS forest official said even those species that are not under CITES, have to get clearance from the DFGT and a no objection certificate from the wild life department of the state, and have to be quarantined first.
