Here’s one aspect of international trade that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping didn’t discuss: the smuggling of wildlife from India into China. Even as India’s wildlife agencies tighten security around iconic tigers and rhinos, the subcontinent's poachers are hunting and selling less-famous pangolins and turtles in hordes.
Poaching in India is driven by demand for skin, bone, meat and shells outside the country and China is the biggest market. Many Chinese people use traditional medicine that can sometimes include ingredients like tiger bones, bear bile and pangolin scales. Wildlife conservation experts all say that clamping down on the market for wildlife products in China would immediately curb wildlife slaughter in India.
These are some of the animals Indian poachers have now set their eyes on.
The pangolin
Photo: Wildlife Alliance/Flickr
The pangolin is a small and harmless anteater. When alarmed, the pangolin’s defense is to roll up into a ball. It poses no challenge to a human that wants to pick it up. The pangolin trade went beserk in 2009 when traders started claiming that that its meat and scales could cure cancer, says Belinda Wright, executive director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. Before 2009, an average of three pangolins were killed every year, the society estimates. Between 2009 and 2013, Indian authorities seized at least 4,000 kg of scales that would have been obtained by killing at least 1,600 pangolins or about 320 every year.
Star tortoise
Photo: Ramesh NG/Flickr
Terrapin
Photo: Sandeep Gangadharan/Flickr
Many varieties of reptiles, like the Indian pond terrapin, are popular on the illegal trade circuit for their meat, eggs and shells. Several hundreds of star tortoises have been seized at airports and border posts from smugglers trying to make their way to Bangkok and Bangladesh, which are among the many transit points for wildlife products.
Some of the more better-known animals on the smuggling circuit include bears, whose bile extracts and gall bladders are sold as medicine as well as paws, meat and fat; leopards, whose skin and bones are often mixed and sold with tiger parts; rhinos, whose horns are supposedly medicinal.
Himalayan Black Bear
Photo: Flowcomm/Flickr
The leopard
Photo: Srikaanth Sekar/Flickr
One-horned rhino
Photo: Diganta Talukdar/Flickr
National and international investigating agencies have traced live animals and parts of dead ones into Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. They suspect that most smuggled wildlife from India is then sent forward to China. “It is understood that the main market is China, that the demand is in China,” said Shyam Bhagat Negi, additional director at India’s wildlife Crime Control Bureau. "There is no demand for wildlife parts in these countries though which they are being transited."
Even though China has made assurances at international meetings about curbing its wildlife market, it has probably not been very strict about enforcing the rules, says Shekhar Niraj, India director of the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. “We have to see a change in the consumer’s behavior, a demand reduction. That can only happen when government comes forward and supports that change.” Niraj also believes scientific studies that disprove animal parts can cure cancer will help the wildlife cause.
India’s wildlife trade negotiations with its neighbours revolve around discussions at the South Asian Wildlife Enforcement Network and the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network. “A reduction in demand will take place if people in policy-making level in those countries are sensitised to how it is affecting our wildlife,” said Negi.
So far agreements on wildlife trade and enforcement between India and China haven’t translated into much action on the ground. “India over the years is always terribly hesitant to bring this up at a high level,” Wright said. “What would make a difference would be if the Prime Minister at his level could bring this up. It is very, very important. These are the jewels of India’s natural heritage and they are being virtually gobbled up and smuggled by criminals.”
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Poaching in India is driven by demand for skin, bone, meat and shells outside the country and China is the biggest market. Many Chinese people use traditional medicine that can sometimes include ingredients like tiger bones, bear bile and pangolin scales. Wildlife conservation experts all say that clamping down on the market for wildlife products in China would immediately curb wildlife slaughter in India.
These are some of the animals Indian poachers have now set their eyes on.
The pangolin
Photo: Wildlife Alliance/Flickr
The pangolin is a small and harmless anteater. When alarmed, the pangolin’s defense is to roll up into a ball. It poses no challenge to a human that wants to pick it up. The pangolin trade went beserk in 2009 when traders started claiming that that its meat and scales could cure cancer, says Belinda Wright, executive director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. Before 2009, an average of three pangolins were killed every year, the society estimates. Between 2009 and 2013, Indian authorities seized at least 4,000 kg of scales that would have been obtained by killing at least 1,600 pangolins or about 320 every year.
Star tortoise
Photo: Ramesh NG/Flickr
Terrapin
Photo: Sandeep Gangadharan/Flickr
Many varieties of reptiles, like the Indian pond terrapin, are popular on the illegal trade circuit for their meat, eggs and shells. Several hundreds of star tortoises have been seized at airports and border posts from smugglers trying to make their way to Bangkok and Bangladesh, which are among the many transit points for wildlife products.
Some of the more better-known animals on the smuggling circuit include bears, whose bile extracts and gall bladders are sold as medicine as well as paws, meat and fat; leopards, whose skin and bones are often mixed and sold with tiger parts; rhinos, whose horns are supposedly medicinal.
Himalayan Black Bear
Photo: Flowcomm/Flickr
The leopard
Photo: Srikaanth Sekar/Flickr
One-horned rhino
Photo: Diganta Talukdar/Flickr
National and international investigating agencies have traced live animals and parts of dead ones into Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. They suspect that most smuggled wildlife from India is then sent forward to China. “It is understood that the main market is China, that the demand is in China,” said Shyam Bhagat Negi, additional director at India’s wildlife Crime Control Bureau. "There is no demand for wildlife parts in these countries though which they are being transited."
Even though China has made assurances at international meetings about curbing its wildlife market, it has probably not been very strict about enforcing the rules, says Shekhar Niraj, India director of the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. “We have to see a change in the consumer’s behavior, a demand reduction. That can only happen when government comes forward and supports that change.” Niraj also believes scientific studies that disprove animal parts can cure cancer will help the wildlife cause.
India’s wildlife trade negotiations with its neighbours revolve around discussions at the South Asian Wildlife Enforcement Network and the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network. “A reduction in demand will take place if people in policy-making level in those countries are sensitised to how it is affecting our wildlife,” said Negi.
So far agreements on wildlife trade and enforcement between India and China haven’t translated into much action on the ground. “India over the years is always terribly hesitant to bring this up at a high level,” Wright said. “What would make a difference would be if the Prime Minister at his level could bring this up. It is very, very important. These are the jewels of India’s natural heritage and they are being virtually gobbled up and smuggled by criminals.”