Chinese gangs seek to corner ivory trade

NEW DELHI: With falling demand in Japan for ivory name seals, China is fast moving in to fill the gap.

Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) sources say criminal gangs from China are now controlling the illegal supply lines of worked and raw ivory that run across Africa and parts of India.

Until recently, Japan was the market for almost 85% of the ivory leaving India illegally. Craftsmen there used to make hankos, or name seals, which was prized by the Japanese. But with more and more Japanese learning to sign their names, the demand for hankos has come down, say experts. "The Chinese have now come into the picture", says Ashok Kumar of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).

"Unlike the Japanese, the Chinese do not discriminate in their preference for ivory. African ivory is as good for them as is the Asian."

Though China officially says that its laws against wildlife trade are stringent and fast, wildlife groups are not convinced. An EIA investigation recently found that despite the "official discouragement" 37 new ivory stores were approved across the country.

"In a country of 1.3 billion people, demand for ivory from just a fraction of one per cent of the population is colossal," an EIA spokesperson told a newspaper recently.