Online retailers are passing off dried penises of endangered monitor lizards as 'hatha jodi' root, considered a 'good luck charm' by tantric practitioners, an Indo-UK joint team of wildlife investigators has claimed.
These lizards are being illegally poached from the wild, their throats slit or their skulls smashed and genitals removed for use as 'hatha jodi', the London-based group World Animal Protection (WAP) said.
"We were shocked at the sheer audacity and scale of this illegal wildlife trade. Deceitful dealers claiming to sell holy plant root labelled as 'hatha jodi' are in fact peddling dried lizard penis to their unwitting customers," Gajender K Sharma, India Country Director at WAP, said.
Hatha jodi is marketed as a good luck charm and to ward away spirits and the plant, which is rare, is found only in remote areas of Nepal and central India.
Laboratory tests carried out by scientists at Manchester Metropolitan University has revealed evidence to suggest that customers are being duped and independent tests by Indian labs have confirmed the suspicion, WAP said in a statement.
All monitor lizards are Schedule I animals and any trade involving it or its body parts is a national offence under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
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