Trafficker who smuggled body parts of 125 tigers, 1200 leopards gets four year jail

Hindustan Times, Bhopal | By Neeraj Santoshi

Updated on: Oct 16, 2017 10:21 am IST

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A notorious wildlife trafficker with international links, who was involved in smuggling body parts of 125 tigers and 1,200 leopards, was convicted by a Madhya Pradesh court

A notorious wildlife trafficker with international links, who was involved in smuggling body parts of 125 tigers and 1,200 leopards, was convicted by a Madhya Pradesh court along with four traffickers and awarded four-year rigorous imprisonment.

Madhya Pradesh forest department’s special task force (STF) arrested Shamim, who hails from Kanpur, in February this year.

STF officials said he was involved in trafficking animal body parts in the international market via Nepal and Tibet.

Ritesh Sirothia, STF (wildlife crime) in charge, said Shamim, Badrilal Sapera, Mansingh, Prahlad and Raghuvir were convicted and sentenced to prison for four years along with a penalty of ₹10,000 each under provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

If they fail to pay the penalty, they will have to serve an additional jail term of 10 months each.

“During questioning, Shamim admitted that he was involved in the trade of 125 tiger and 1,200 leopard hides in Indian and international markets,” Sirothia said.

He added that Shamim was also arrested in UP in 2004 with 456 nails of tigers and leopards.

Sirothia said Raghuvir alias Kalicharan was arrested in 1988 with 129 animal hides from Guna district but he managed to get away.

“In 2005, a case was registered against him in Ranthambore too. These convictions are a major success for us,” he said

The court said the five were involved in organised wildlife smuggling of wild animals including pangolins, jackals, cobras, red sand boas, hyenas in MP’s Narsinghgarh, Sehore, Guna, Rajasthan and Delhi.

According to principal chief wildlife warden (wildlife ) Jitendra Agrawal, the five traffickers were arrested by the STF with pangolin scales and a sand boa snake in January this year and later produced before the court

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Santoshi

Neeraj Santoshi is the Chief of Bureau for Hindustan Times in Uttarakhand, where he leads the state reporting team while covering government, politics, environment, wildlife, Uttarakhand High Court, and issues shaping the Himalayan region. With more than two decades in journalism across conflict zones, he has covered politically sensitive regions and environmentally fragile landscapes, and focused on stories that combine public interest with in-depth storytelling. An alumnus of Pune University with a Master’s in Communication Studies, he has reported extensively from Jammu & Kashmir (2003-2010), Madhya Pradesh (2010 to 2018 ) and Uttarakhand (Since 2018), covering subjects ranging from insurgency, elections and governance to wildlife conservation, mining, climate change, agriculture, human rights and social justice. He has covered politics and legislative assemblies of both Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh over more than a decade. Before taking over as Chief of Bureau in Uttarakhand, he served as Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times in Madhya Pradesh and earlier reported for both Hindustan Times and The Indian Express in Jammu & Kashmir, where he covered state politics, environment and insurgency-related developments. Over the years, his stories have focused on environmental degradation, wildlife, illegal mining, governance and the changing social fabric of Himalayan states and Central India. He is particularly interested in long-form explanatory journalism, and stories that explore the intersection of ecology, conservation, governance and society. Outside the newsroom, Neeraj enjoys reading widely on neuroscience, consciousness studies, Artificial Intelligence and quantum physics, with a special interest in Kashmiri Tantric Shaivist traditions. He is also passionate about wildlife, mountaineering and the Himalayas, interests that continue to inform his reporting and deepen his understanding of the region he covers. Read Less ...Read More

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