Though the sale of a tiger skin on baazee.com went largely unnoticed in 2002, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) -- set up in January by the Cabinet under the Wild Life Protection Act , 1972 -- has responded swiftly to the 26 August Meerut seizure of rare and endangered birds by announcing the creation of a web-patrolling unit. A Delhi based NGO, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), tracked the online activities of an illegal wildlife trader and nabbed him at point of sale with a special task force from UP.
The trader used networking sites such as Orkut to meet potential customers from the Middle East and Europe and then closed deals via email. "Until now, these seizures have been a result of chance detections and represent a miniscule fraction of the vast scope the internet provides for illegal trade," said Ashok Kumar, vice-chairman of WTI, highlighting the urgency of patrolling. An International Fund for Animal Welfare report that revealed at least 90 per cent of investigated ivory listings on eBay were legally suspect has driven eBay to announce a global ban on the sale of ivory products by next year.
Given the new anonymity-guaranteed tech-savvy profile of illegal wildlife traders, such initiatives by the WCCB could play a significant role in safeguarding India's (primarily a source country for illegal wildlife trade -- very little is imported) wild. Especially when the UN-backed Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species considers it sensible to support the sale of 108 tonnes of ivory (which means over 10,000 dead elephants) in Africa, with China and Japan as trading partners.
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