'India fast losing some iconic species due to illegal trade'

India, like the rest of the world, is fast losing some of its iconic species due to illegal trade in wildlife, a senior forest official said today.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Adminstration), N Krishnakumar today said wildlife crime has progressively become an organised activity and affected many other species for illegal exploitation.
"As the world grows in wealth, demand for species like tiger, elephant, leopard, pangolin or rhino for their parts and derivatives has increased. Wildlife crime has progressively become an organised activity and affects many other species for illegal exploitation," he said.
He was addressing a 3-day national level workshop, claimed to be the first in India, on capacity building for effective wildlife law enforcement.

Additional Director, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, New Delhi, Tilottama Varma said it was important for the agency to secure cooperation and participation of other law enforcement agencies like police, railway protection force, Customs, border security forces and others.
Shekhar Kumar Niraj, head of TRAFFIC India, joint organisers, claimed that the workshop was first of its kind in India, where officers from various law enforcement agencies have come together for intense skill development to combat wildlife crime and discuss and develop national level strategy and protocols for combating wildlife crime.

The workshop is being organised by TRAFFIC, a global wildlife trade monitoring network, in partnership with Tamil Nadu Forest Department, Tamil Nadu Forest Academy, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), and WWF-India.

Around 100 participants from 18 states, representing the departments of forests, police and intelligence and seven central agencies, representing Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Indo-Tibetan Border Police forces, Border Security Forces, Customs, Railway Protection Force, Sastra Surakha Bal and others are attending the event.
The workshop will discuss and share ideas related to identification of specimens in trade and strategies in combating crime, application of forensics and DNA techniques in wildlife crime investigations, Niraj said.