Karnataka: Alligator heads, snake oil, starfish, seahorses on sale

Bengaluru: A new threat to wildlife has emerged. The increase in crime against wildlife across the country has led to hundreds of crores of rupees being pumped into deputing foresters to protect wildlife in the core areas. Anti-poaching activities have been stepped up during day and night rounds. “Leg hold” traps and snares that are used by hunters to trap wild animals are now on sale, leading to a widespread scare among wildlife rescue organisations and the foresters.

Meanwhile, social media is agog with the heartbreaking story of a three-month-old female sloth bear that lost its mother and one of its front paws to a wire snare set by a poacher in Amoni village of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh early this year.

Wildlife activists feel there are hundreds of wild animals across the country that are poached using “leg hold traps” and “snares”. Surprisingly, these devices that put an end to wildlife are easily available through electronic commerce – which is defined as the buying and selling of goods and services through an electronic medium like the internet.

“For the uninitiated, snares are basically booby traps set in wildlife areas. Once placed, they have no expiry date; devices placed decades ago have the ability to kill today, and devices set today can unselectively kill, years into the future. Animals caught in snares and traps often struggle for hours—in some cases days—before succumbing to thirst, hunger, strangulation, internal injuries, even attacks from predators and carnivores. Some desperate trapped animals such as tigers, bears and leopards have even been known to chew off their own limbs in order to free themselves,” states the official website of Wildlife SOS, an NGO.

Meanwhile, Wildlife SOS, known for its work on “Dancing Bears” of India, is also active in preserving leopards, elephants, reptiles and other wildlife. It has been generating awareness about the online trade of wildlife. Apart from dangerous trapping and killing devices like snares, the e-commerce sites were seen selling alligator heads, preserved snakes, snake oils, protected species of starfish, seahorses, butterflies and rare beetles.  

The NGO had also filed a petition to an ecommerce site to stop selling leg hold traps and snares in India and across the world. It has received more than 9, 000 signatures. The e-commerce site has also agreed to stop selling leg hold traps and snares in India.

Meanwhile, selling or hunting of wild animals is illegal according to the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.

The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau is the authority in charge to take action against such online wildlife trade. In case you come across such a case, do report it to the authority concerned.