Traffickers continuously use international borders to fuel the illegal wildlife trade (IWT). Taking advantage of the border’s porosity they use different methods of transportation to move wildlife contraband like exotic animals, skins, ivory, etc. to other countries. Wildlife traffickers hide and conceal illegal wildlife contraband in such a manner that it becomes very challenging for law enforcement authorities to detect such items while they are being transported.

Poaching and illegal wildlife trade (IWT) pose a long-term threat to the conservation of forests and their inhabitants. According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) after arms, drugs, and human trafficking, IWT is considered the fourth most highly organized transnational crime syndicate.

A few commonly traded illegal wildlife articles; Photo by Sreenanth K, WTI

The Indo-Nepal border is one such conduit point where a lot of illegal wildlife trafficking occurs. Most of the time the enforcement agencies find it difficult to identify the trafficked wildlife articles due to a lack of specialised knowledge in identifying the articles. Traffickers exploit this lacuna to carry out their operations smoothly.

To help fill this glaring gap, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) regularly organises specialised training and skill-development workshops for frontline forest officials. More recently, in collaboration with the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) and Environment, Forest and Climate Change Department, Uttar Pradesh, WTI conducted a one-day workshop on ‘Commonly Traded Wildlife Article Identification and Cyber Wildlife Crime’ at the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, Uttar Pradesh on July 25, 2022.

Mr. Sanjay Pathak during his inaugural speech; Photo by Sreenanth K, WTI

The prime aim of the workshop was to sensitize key enforcement agencies based in the Indo-Nepal border region such as the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), the Forest Department, and the Police department regarding the identification of wildlife articles and provide them with hands-on training to identify fake and original wildlife articles.

A total of 60 participants from the Police and Forest departments along with Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) attended the workshop. Sanjay Pathak, CCF and Field Director of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, Uttar Pradesh inaugurated the event.

Dr. A Pragatheesh, Wildlife Inspector, WCCB took the opening session on ‘Wildlife in Illegal Trade and Field Identification,’ the session was deeply insightful for the participants as they were able to take a closer look at the illegally traded wildlife contraband and also learn the difference between the natural and artificial mongoose hair, ivory, leopard skin, nails, and teeth, etc.

Dr. A Pragatheesh during his presentation; Photo by Sreenanth K, WTI

This was then followed by a session on Cyber Wildlife Crime, the session covered various aspects of IWT and how it has taken to modern cyberspace. He also briefed the participants about the modus Operandi used by the traffickers online and how to detect this trade online on social networking sites and social media platforms.

Mr. Akashdeep Badhawan, IFS, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) deeply appreciated the efforts of WTI and WCCB. He thought of the workshop to be engaging and insightful. “Katarniaghat wildlife division as a part of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve has got 55 Km of the border with Nepal. So this border becomes vulnerable and highly sensitive in terms of wildlife crime,” he said.

He added that it is a remarkable thing to see WTI and WCCB organizing such workshops by displaying various wildlife illegal traded articles.

Dr. A Pragatheesh introducing the exhibits to Mr. Akashdeep Badhawan and others; Photo by Sreenanth K, WTI

Poaching and IWT threaten the rich biodiversity of our country and pose a long-term threat to the conservation of its inhabitants.   Wildlife Trust of India’s Strengthening Cross-Border Crime Prevention and Legal Assistance between India and Nepal project supported by International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) has been working to curb wildlife crime across the sensitive Indo-Nepal border region.

In order to control IWT, citizen participation is an integral part. Keeping this in mind WTI has launched Cyber HAWK which is a mobile application to encourage citizen participation in reporting online and offline wildlife crimes. You can also be a part of this initiative by reporting wildlife crimes at CYBER HAWK.