Jumbo smuggling racket busted in Assam, 9 rescued

[Mrudul Godbole]

Jumbo smuggling racket busted in Assam, 9 rescued
Naresh Mitra, TNN, Nov 1, 2010, 04.58am IST

GUWAHATI: It's 'heritage' plunder of jumbo proportions. Wild elephants are being trapped, whipped to submission, sedated and then smuggled out of Assam.

The administration had no clue to this racket until an NGO tipped them off about a consign-ment of nine elephants, including a mother and a calf, heading out of Kokrajhar two days ago.

Just a week ago, the central government had accorded heritage status to elephants.

According to sources, this was just the one consignment detected. Many more have slipped past border check-gates to Bengal and Bihar and even crossed the international border into Myanmar.

With the Sonepur fair in Bihar (famed for elephant trade) approaching, wildlife crime experts fear the worst for the gentle jumbos of Assam.

The nine elephants are said to have been brought from Upper Assam to Kokrajhar in Lower Assam. Police intercepted the trucks at Sreerampur on the Assam-Bengal border. A Kokrajhar-based NGO, Green Heart Nature Club, filed a complaint with police, leading to the arrest of four persons, among them West Bengal-based businessman Rabindra Singh and Dayaram Doloi of Assam's Golaghat district.

If these jumbos had been smuggled out, each would have been sold for at least `40 lakh.

"These arrests have exposed the thriving inter-state racket in elephant smuggling. Our volunteers prevented an elephant calf from being traded at Bokakhat area of Golaghat district on Saturday," said People for Animals (PFA) chairperson Sangeeta Goswami who fears more than 90 elephants have been smuggled out of Assam since 2002.

The jumbo smuggling racket works much the same way as human trafficking rackets. Forged paperwork and false identities are created to pass off wild elephants as captivated, domesticated ones. Even microchips, a must for domestic elephants, are 'arranged'.

Officials involved in tackling wildlife crime say several hard-core elephant traders from Bihar have already fanned out in various districts of upper Assam, especially those sharing border with Arunachal Pradesh, to procure elephants for the Sonepur fair.

"The latest arrests only the tip of the iceberg. Most of the elephants are taken out of the state without proper documents," a wildlife crime expert said.

Elephant, being a Schedule-I species under Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Act 1972, cannot be traded, but it can be moved from one state to another with permission from the chief wildlife warden. The racket exploits the law to carry out this nefarious trade.

Very often, it involves putting the elephants through a brutal regimen to make them submissive. These elephants are then brought to Assam and given a fresh 'identity' from a dead captive elephant. Even micro-chips are managed for the captured elephants.

"This is why, we demand a complete ban on movement of elephants from Assam or the northeast to any other part of the country. Once they are taken out, legally or illegally, the elephants are often subjected to great hardship. Elephants are majestic elephants and should be treated as such," elephant expert Kushal Kumar Sarma said.

According to sources, Rajasthan, Bihar, Delhi and some southern states procured most of the captive elephants of Assam.

In September, villagers in Jairampur in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh prevented two elephants from being smuggled to Myanm-ar. Two mahouts were arres-ted. Police suspected the involvement of militant outfit NSCN(K) in smuggling elephants across the international border.

Article at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Jumbo-smuggling-racket-busted-in-Assam-9-rescued/articleshow/6847905.cms#ixzz14a8OpxmA

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Shocking!

It is very difficult to believe that the wildlife trade of a species as large as an elephant goes right under the nose of the forest department. And since this can only be done with permission from the Chief wildlife warden, it is intriguing that no one checked the authenticity of the signatures till the NGO blew the whistle. Good job by the NGO Green Heart Nature Club.

It is not hard to understand that such a thing cannot happen without the active collusion of people in positions of power. With the recent declaration of Elephant as the National Animal, it would be fit to order a CBI investigation to reach the root of this problem.

I would like to urge our members to write to the Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Manmohan Singh demanding for a CBI enquiry and to write to the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Assam Shri Tarun Gogoi asking him to agree for a CBI investigation.

Sabyasachi

[Mrudul Godbole]

Some more news..

Elephant-smuggling suspects held
(UKPA) – Nov 1, 2010


Five people have been arrested and three wild elephants seized as Indian police smashed an elephant-smuggling ring in north-eastern Assam, officials said.
Police official PK Dutta said documents seized during the operation showed that the gang had smuggled at least 92 elephants from the north-eastern state to other parts of India over the past five years.
Selling elephants is barred under Indian law and even getting permission to move domesticated elephants between states is a lengthy procedure.
Nevertheless, authorities say there remains a thriving trade in elephants, with many wealthy landowners in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh buying the animals as status symbols.
Authorities said the elephants are usually transported by truck. The smugglers are suspected of colluding with forestry officials, who have checkpoints along the major roads to prevent this type of smuggling.
Police investigated the ring after a local conservation group, the Green Heart Nature Club, filed a written complaint, Mr Dutta said.
After a three-day operation, authorities arrested five people and took custody of the three wild elephants, which did not have the identifying microchip implants required of all domesticated elephants, he said.
The group planned to smuggle as many as 10 elephants out in its latest operation, Mr Dutta added.
The smugglers regularly captured wild elephants from the forests of Assam, trained them for a year or two, and then claimed they were the offspring of the state's many domestic elephants, he said.
Wildlife authorities in Assam, home to more than 5,000 wild Asiatic elephants, denied the existence of the illegal elephant trade.

Article at - http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jSb6vhmlXwKMJBvTPMBBF2TlyZ6A?docId=N00871512 88596328780A