Wildlife poaching

1. “Only when the last of the animal’s horns,
tusks, skin and bones are sold, will
Wildlife Poaching

2. Poaching is the act of hunting, killing and
selling (or using) of wildlife species for
monetary or materialistic gains.

3. Causes
• Local wildlife - a resource for local
communities
• Increase in price of meat
• Increase in price of animal trophies
• Increase in the use of weapons
• Incidental killing of non-target species

4. Poaching and trade
• An unprecedented spike in illegal wildlife trade
• Live animals and plants or all kinds of wild animal and
plant products
• Threatening to overturn decades of conservation
gains
• Second -biggest direct threat to species survival, after
habitat destruction

5. • A big business-dangerous international networks like
illegal drugs and arms
• Sold legitimately as food, pets, ornamental plants,
leather, tourist ornaments and medicine
• Impossible to obtain reliable figures for the value of
illegal wildlife trade

6. Lone poacher with a rifle……
….Organised criminal networks

7. Wildlife trade hotspots
• China's international
borders
• Trade hubs in
East/Southern Africa and
Southeast Asia
• Eastern borders of the
European Union
• Some markets in Mexico
• Parts of the Caribbean
• Parts of Indonesia
• New Guinea
• Solomon Islands

8. Historical perspectives of wildlife utilization
• Hunter Gatherer
Society
– Stone Age
Hunting- stone
weapons
– Iron Age
Hunting- iron
weapons
– Mesolithic -
Traps, Snares

9. • Pastoralist Vs
Agriculture
– Human settling down
– Growth of
Domestication of
Wild Animals
– Cultivation of
Crops/Agriculture
Growth
– Commercialization of
wild game
Historical perspectives of wildlife utilization

10. • Consumptive Use
– Edible
– Meat, Fat, Blubbers
• Non-Consumptive use
– Non edible
– Pet trade
– Tourism
– Zoological Parks
– Research-trade-biomedical
– Bird-butterfly-Whale Watching
– Skin, Fur, Feather, Horns, antlers,
Ivory, Musk, Shells, Sports hunting
Current perspective of wildlife utilization

11. Gravity of situation
• WPSI’s Wildlife Crime Database currently has
recovers over 20,000 wildlife cases involving
more than 400 species.
• Interpol says the trade in illegal wildlife
products is worth some US$ 12 billion a year.
• India is now a major source market for
wildlife trade

12. Whom???

13. Animals in poaching-Indian Scenario
• Tiger – born, skin, nails
• Elephant- Ivory
• Rhino- Horn
• Leopard-Skin
• Peacock- Feather, meat
• Turtle- Meat, leather, eggs
• Barn owl- magic belief
• Sand boa- magic belief
• Deer- Antlers, musk and meat
• Wild boar- meat
• Gaur- meat

14. Wildlife poaching- Some statistics
• In 2015, 6 cases related to tiger, 42 cases
related to leopard and 24 cases related to
rhino poaching were reported in India
• It was recorded a loss of 226 elephants due
to poaching in a period of 5 years from 2010-
2015.
(Source: www.wpsi-india.org)

15. Preventive measures
• Education to the public
• Patrolling work
• Legislative measures (WPA, 1972)

16. Remedial measures
• No remedy for the loss of life
• Widening Protected Area Network
• Conservation Projects
(Elephant Conservation Project, 1999;
Operation kachhapa, 1998)

17. Agencies and organization against
poaching
• WPSI (Wildlife Protection Society of India)
- Wildlife crime database
- Secret Information Reward Scheme
- Wildlife law enforcement workshop
• The Rhino Foundation for Nature in North-east
India
• The Wildlife Society of Orissa
• Aaranyak

18. Antipoaching activity abroad
• WWF
• Wildlife Conservation Society
• WCPA (World Commission on Protected
Areas)
• TRAFFIC
• CITES
• MIKE