Increase in reptile smuggling worries wildlife officials

NEW DELHI: An alarming increase in the smuggling of reptiles such as monitor lizards, snakes and turtles in the Tarai belt of Uttar Pradesh bordering Nepal has prompted the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau to issue an alert.

"We fear that there is possible involvement of an organized nexus of cross-border poachers who are swiftly smuggling the reptiles to the international market via Nepal route where political instability has made their task easier," Ramesh Pandey of WCCB said.

He was of the view that the new emerging pattern in wildlife trade from the region that borders with Nepal as well as the state of Uttarakhand need to be tracked.

"Going by a large number of seizures of turtles, sand boas (snake species) and monitor lizards, it seems the trade appears to be controlled by an organized nexus with the help of locals. We have issued alert in the state to keep the officials on their guard," Pandey said.

He said since the species are found in non-forest areas as well, quiet often the criminals take advantage of the ignorance of the officers on duty, who are at times oblivious to the changing wildlife crime trends in the international market.