Marine wildlife articles seized from gems store in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, India: Tracking trade link from south and east coast of India all the way up to the Himalayas, a joint team of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC) seized wildlife products, including Himalayan musk deer pods, from a gems store in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.

Apart from Himalayan musk deer pods, the seized articles included soft corals (Gorgonia species) and a large number of protected sea shells and derivatives of red corals. Pangolin scale rings and body parts of monitor lizard were also seized during the raid. The wildlife articles are protected under schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act and prohibited under appendix 1 and 3 of CITES. With assistance and actionable intelligence from the WJC team led by its South Asia head Shekhar Kumar Niraj, the DRI team raided the gems store in the city and seized the articles. Eight persons have been detained in this connection.

The seizure included items of protected marine wildlife species such as Gorogonia smuggling which attracts a jail term up to seven years. The musk deer pods seized during the raid were the costliest among the lot. Niraj informed that the raid was in continuation of the seizure of protected marine species at Vijayawada in June when the international foundation headquartered in Hague had stumbled upon intelligence on marine wildlife trade between coastal Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Andaman Nicobar and upper Himalayas to Bhubaneswar, with likelihood of trade link between India and South East Asia. WJC officials said the seized articles would be handed over to Wildlife Wing of the state for prosecution.

Shekhar said the soft corals have large markets which is why its smuggling trade link includes an alarming chain of local suppliers, middlemen, retailers as well as large online market place. The DRI team was led by its deputy director under the instruction of the joint director, Hyderabad zonal unit.

Source: (New Indian Express)