CBI probe into elephant poaching a blow to corporate nexus (Chennai)
CBI probe into elephant poaching a blow to corporate nexus (Chennai)
CS Kotteswaran and VP Raghu, DT Next
April 9, 2021
The CBI investigation is likely to be a headache for several corporate
clients who were in touch with ‘Eagle’ Rajan, Aji Bright and Priston Selva
– all regional kingpins controlling the country wide illegal wildlife trade
in India.
The whereabouts of ‘Eagle’ Rajan, - one of the links between corporate
world and elephant poachers - now in his fifties, is currently not known
after he allegedly left for Sharjah in 2015 from Chennai. He was actively
liasoning with corporate bosses for nearly a decade and had made good
illegal money by arranging ivory for them. His business network was hit
when wildlife enforcers managed to dismantle the poaching mafia operated by
Veerappan five years ago. A copy of Rajan’s diary, with addresses and
mobile numbers of his customers, even from abroad, was accessed by
enforcers.
“Political pressure and lack of coordination from states is a major reason
why we were not able to proceed further as the consumers are settled in
posh areas like Adyar Boat club, Poes Garden, Jubilee hills and South
Mumbai. I am tired and retired from wildlife investigations,” said an
officer who was instrumental in getting the photo of actor Salman Khan
updated in the WCCB records.
“The matter would have died long back, but thanks to Justices MM Sundaresh
and N Sathish Kumar who were periodically asking questions about the WCCB
findings. Both the Kerala and Tamil Nadu forest departments were not co
coordinating,” said Deepak Nambiar, founder, Elephant Maximum Indicus Trust
(EMIT). IFS officers and forest rangers are ducking out from the elephant
poaching cases that they have unearthed in the past 10 due to lack of
support from State governments and other Central investigative agencies,
Nambiar added. A few officials attached to the Wildlife Crime Control
Bureau, including a 2009 batch IFS officer T Uma, who was the Deputy
Director of WCCB, Ministry of environment and Forests, Chennai, is now
running pillar to post to fight against the corporate world that consumes
poached ivory from south Indian forests.
‘Lack of coordination between probe agencies helps poachers’
According to sources from Forest Department and Wildlife Crime Control
Bureau (WCCB), the officials who pursued elephant poaching cases while
serving in the bureau from 2016 to 2019 are now facing 21 cases of human
rights violations and custodial tortures for daring to take on the
influential persons.
“With government advocates and Forest officials acting in connivance with
high-profile ivory customers, at least two officers have engaged lawyers on
their own. After seeing this, I too opted out of wildlife crime
investigations and forensics,” said a senior IFS officer now serving in an
administrative post. Sources added that central agencies like ED, too, had
registered cases against the same persons for illegal activities like
narcotics business. But details of these cases were not shared between
agencies, which only helped the poachers.
Network broken in every state to ensure privacy of the buyer never revealed
According to WWF Traffic, a wildlife investigation agency, kingpins meet
customers and based on the order size, the elephant is poached. The
kingpins usually pay the tribes both in Asia and Africa to monitor large
tuskers. The network is broken at every state to ensure that the privacy of
the buyer is not revealed. During court investigations, the poachers are
remanded and convicted, but the consumers, often celebrities, go scot free.
Elephant tusks, snake skin, rhino horn, tiger parts, leopard claws, bones,
skins, whiskers, deer antlers; shahtoosh shawl, medicinal plants, red
sander, scheduled timber and protected birds are poached. A large part of
this trade is meant for the international market and has no direct domestic
demand in India, but there are regular Indian corporate clients.