By Nirmal Ghosh

New Delhi:When Queen Sirikit in her birthday message to the Thai people in August called on them to protect wildlife and the environment, Police Colonel Sawake Pinsinchai took it very personally.

At 58, Colonel Sawake, a big, broad, tough veteran policeman, thought he had seen plenty of the nastier side of life ‘ but nothing had prepared him for the horror uncovered last week in a house in Nonthaburi on the outskirts of Bangkok.

”I was shocked” he told The Straits Times. ”I had no idea this sort of thing went on in Thailand. Not nowadays anyway.”

In the house the raiding party led by him found among other things 21 bear paws, recently severed and dripping with blood; 6 half-starved, emaciated live tigers in cages waiting to be slaughtered; 22 kilos of fresh bloody tiger meat and 51 kilos of dried tiger bone; two baby orang utans in such bad condition that one later died; and five live bears.

The live tigers were from the wild, Colonel Sawake told The Straits Times. Investigations had revealed two were from Sumatra, and three from Thailand’s Thung Yai National Park in Kanchanaburi province.

The find has kicked off an unprecedented crackdown. Colonel Sawake’s men raided the famous Chatuchak weekend market last Sunday, seizing more than 1000 protected species valued at around 50 million baht and arresting several dealers. The next day a raid on a house in Bangkok yielded 100 rare birds, several civets and pythons and another horror : the body of an orangutan baby less than six months old in the freezer along with five Great Argus Pheasants, two otters and a turtle.

At the outset Colonel Sawake sent news of the finds directly to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who endorsed the crackdown. Government officials are now scurrying to find ways to tighten weak wildlife laws and are considering using the powerful Anti Money Laundering Office to sieze the assets of traders.

Heads may roll too. Siri Wangboonkerd, chairman of the House sub-committee on wildlife, has called for Dr. Plodprasop Suraswadi, permanent secretary of the environment ministry, to be fired. Dr. Plodprasop has tried to go on the offensive by calling for the death penalty for illegal trafficking in wildlife. The media has jumped into the fray, conducting public polls : in one such poll an overwhelming majority of respondents said they would support the death penalty.

”This issue is finally being given the high-level attention it has deserved for so long” World Wildlife Fund Thailand’s Dr. Robert Mather said.Colonel Sawake, who took over the Forestry Police in May this year, told The Straits Times ”I have given traders and restaurants seven days. After that I will go after them. I promise that in three months I will carry out the Queen’s wishes and clean up this trade. That will be my birthday gift to her next year.”

”I am determined to stamp it out, including the transit trade in wildlife products. I’m confident that now we have greater inter-agency cooperation, and the CEO-style governor system will help tackle the problem at the provincial level. And I have told my superiors if I don’t succeed, please remove me.”

There are more considerations as well. Thailand has long been known as a lax place where wildlife traders have a virtually free run thanks to a culture of corruption and significant tourist clientele from east Asia.

”There are Korean tour groups who come to this country specifically to eat endangered exotic wildlife, like bear paw soup” Dr. Mather said.

But Bangkok is hosting the annual Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting next year, as well as major global conferences on biodiversity and conservation.

Bangkok cannot afford a bad reputation; 12 years ago CITES slapped Thailand with sanctions for failing to control the wildlife trade and all wildlife products including orchids were banned from being imported from the country, spawning huge losses for Thai traders.

”The country’s image is at stake” said the soft-spoken but fiercely determined Colonel Sawake. ”We need to do three things : modify our laws; enforce CITES laws, and educate the public.”

”Instead of bragging about eating so-called aphrodisiac wildlife parts, people should be ashamed that they have to do it” the Colonel said.

( A version of these reports appeared in The Straits Times, Nov 7, 2003 , also see www.indianjungles.com. Pictures : WWF Thailand)