TIGER TASK FORCE REPORT JOINING THE DOTS ■RecommendationsIt is clear that unless international trade in tiger parts is checked, <strong>the</strong>re will be growingpressure on <strong>the</strong> tigers <strong>of</strong> India. The tigers <strong>of</strong> India are one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> last remainingpopulations <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> big cats in south and sou<strong>the</strong>ast Asia. Therefore, <strong>the</strong>re is bound to bedemand which leads to illegal poaching. Over <strong>the</strong> last several years, <strong>the</strong> efforts <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>international community to ban trade in tiger products, however important, has onlymeant that <strong>the</strong> trade has gone more underground and has become more difficult to detect.It is <strong>the</strong> assessment <strong>of</strong> this <strong>Task</strong> <strong>Force</strong> that <strong>the</strong> international community has failed toinvestigate and break this trade. It is, <strong>the</strong>refore, very important for India to take proactiveand strong measures on <strong>the</strong> matter <strong>of</strong> international trade in wildlife. It must do <strong>the</strong>following:a. It must take up this issue with <strong>the</strong> international community through CITES. In this, <strong>the</strong><strong>Task</strong> <strong>Force</strong> strongly believes that <strong>the</strong> ministry must be very proactive to shape <strong>the</strong>agenda at CITES to ensure that <strong>the</strong> international market for tiger products areinvestigated. It is not enough for <strong>the</strong> international community to ask India tostreng<strong>the</strong>n its own domestic wildlife enforcement. This is very important and it mustbe done. But this streng<strong>the</strong>ned domestic policing will not be enough to check <strong>the</strong>trade in tiger parts. The international community must be under pressure to combatand destroy this trade.b. India must work to build its bilateral relationships with China in this regard. TheGlobal <strong>Tiger</strong> Forum, which was set up to network and dialogue with tiger rangecountries, has clearly proved to be inadequate. In fact, it has become irrelevant,especially as China has still not joined <strong>the</strong> forum. India must disengage itself frominstitutions that are not working and find strategies <strong>of</strong> engaging with China.c. This <strong>Task</strong> <strong>Force</strong> believes it must be done bilaterally. It knows that both governmentsare extremely concerned about issues related to tiger part trade. The <strong>Task</strong> <strong>Force</strong>,<strong>the</strong>refore, suggests <strong>the</strong> Union environment minister take <strong>the</strong> lead in this regard bydiscussing and developing a bilateral relationship with his counterpart in China, andthat this dialogue must be kept alive and ongoing.It is critical that India takes <strong>the</strong> leadership on this issue and does not leave it to globalinstitutions which are proving inadequate in this regard.The way ahead 55
■ JOINING THE DOTS TIGER TASK FORCE REPORT3.3a Domestic enforcement agendaThe trade <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> tiger in India is banned under <strong>the</strong>Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The tiger is aSchedule I species, which means that it isendangered and strictly protected. But trade in tigerparts continues and experts believe that <strong>the</strong> trade ishighly organised and run by a well-known selectgroup <strong>of</strong> people. 1In January 2000, police seized four tiger skins, 70leopard skins, 221 blackbuck skins, 18,000 leopardclaws, 150 kg leopard and tiger bones, 132 tigerclaws, two leopard teeth and one dried leopard penisfrom private properties in Khaga in Uttar Pradesh.This seizure was one <strong>the</strong> largest hauls <strong>of</strong> illegalwildlife products ever recorded in India, indicating aconsistent and large-scale level <strong>of</strong> organisation.Earlier, on December 18, 1999, three tiger skinsand 50 leopard skins had been seized by sales tax<strong>of</strong>ficials from a truck in Ghaziabad, on <strong>the</strong> outskirts<strong>of</strong> Delhi. The skins were concealed in large jute bags,and wrapped in poly<strong>the</strong>ne and layers <strong>of</strong> denim cloth.The skins were fresh and each had a signature on <strong>the</strong>back. The truck was bound for Siliguri in northBengal, near India's borders with Nepal and Bhutan.Both <strong>the</strong> names <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> sender and receiver on <strong>the</strong>packages turned out to be fake. 2 But all <strong>the</strong> seizurespointed to Tibetan connections.While <strong>the</strong> notorious Sansar Chand, <strong>the</strong> mastermindsmuggler, is now behind bars, <strong>the</strong>re are o<strong>the</strong>rbig names that feature in <strong>the</strong> annals <strong>of</strong> wildlife crime.The Central Bureau <strong>of</strong> Investigation believes that all<strong>the</strong>se gangs, even though <strong>the</strong>y operate in differentareas or domains, are well connected (even related attimes) to each o<strong>the</strong>r and <strong>the</strong>re is no rivalry between<strong>the</strong>m; <strong>the</strong>y have been operating over long periods <strong>of</strong>time. The main suspect in <strong>the</strong> Khaga case wasShabbir Hasan Qureshi, whose house when raided inJuly 2004 produced 456 tiger and leopard claws andapproximately US $13,000 in cash. 3There is no doubt that India has to streng<strong>the</strong>n itsdomestic efforts to check tiger poaching and o<strong>the</strong>rwildlife crimes, and that <strong>the</strong>se actions need to betaken urgently and effectively. It is also evident that<strong>the</strong> Union ministry <strong>of</strong> environment and forests hasbeen slow in putting toge<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> frameworkrequired to effectively deal with wildlife crime.It was in 1994 that a committee underS Subramanium, a former senior police <strong>of</strong>ficial,submitted its report on preventing illegal trade inwildlife and wildlife products. The committee, in anextremely comprehensive report, suggested anumber <strong>of</strong> actions needed to tighten enforcement <strong>of</strong>wildlife crime. Its recommendations included <strong>the</strong>setting up <strong>of</strong> a central task force that would overseeand coordinate <strong>the</strong> work <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> central wildlife crimedata bank (also proposed) and <strong>the</strong> intelligence unit. Itnamed this as <strong>the</strong> directorate <strong>of</strong> prevention <strong>of</strong> crimeagainst wildlife. This directorate proposed a legalcell to pursue important cases in courts across <strong>the</strong>country; an investigation wing for cases withnational and inter-state reach and an operations cellto carry out undercover raids on organised crime.The report also set out o<strong>the</strong>r urgently requiredactions needed to streng<strong>the</strong>n enforcement. 4Since <strong>the</strong>n, <strong>the</strong> Union ministry <strong>of</strong> environmentand forests has played around with <strong>the</strong> idea <strong>of</strong> settingup this directorate. Every few years, <strong>the</strong> idea isrevived, but it dies a natural death. More recently,perhaps because <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> internal pressure generatedby <strong>the</strong> Sariska episode as well as <strong>the</strong> action initiatedby <strong>the</strong> Convention on International Trade inEndangered Species <strong>of</strong> Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES),<strong>the</strong> idea has once again gained momentum. At <strong>the</strong>March 2005 meeting <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> National Board forWildlife, <strong>the</strong> ministry submitted a proposal for anational wildlife crime bureau. 5But it is clear that <strong>the</strong> proposal is too ambitiousand personnel-heavy. The proposal provides for 260new posts at various levels. The bureau will beheaded by <strong>the</strong> additional director general <strong>of</strong> forests(wildlife) and have positions created both at <strong>the</strong>Centre and regions for monitoring and enforcement.It is important at this stage to review this proposal in<strong>the</strong> light <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> current situation so that <strong>the</strong>enforcement mechanism, once created, can beeffective as well.The current enforcement machineIn March 2002, <strong>the</strong> ministry set up <strong>the</strong> wildlife crimecell in <strong>the</strong> <strong>of</strong>fice <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> director, Project <strong>Tiger</strong>. InApril 2004, <strong>the</strong> cell was moved to <strong>the</strong> <strong>of</strong>fice <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>director, Project Elephant. When it was set up, it wasproposed <strong>the</strong> cell would have two joint directors toundertake its work. But till date, <strong>the</strong>se positions havenot been filled. As a result, work on <strong>the</strong> cell is greatlycompromised, making it virtually ineffective.In addition, <strong>the</strong> ministry has a separatedirectorate <strong>of</strong> wildlife preservation, headed by <strong>the</strong>additional director general <strong>of</strong> forests (wildlife). Itconsists <strong>of</strong> four regional <strong>of</strong>fices headed by <strong>of</strong>ficersholding <strong>the</strong> positions <strong>of</strong> deputy directors and threesub-regional <strong>of</strong>fices (headed by assistant directors)located in Amritsar (Punjab), Cochin (Kerala) andGuwahati (Assam). The mandate <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se <strong>of</strong>fices is to56 The way ahead
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