Subject: Bird smuggling


>From the India News Network.

Vivek
vtiwari@scdt.intel.com
Santa Clara, CA 95051
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#6  Many rare birds get trapped in smuggling racket

By  Aneeta Sharma - Patna - The Times of India - 5th March 1997

Thousands of rare birds from the famous Mirshikar Toli of Patna city are
being smuggled into Pakistan through Nepal.  The birds are being sold
openly in Bag bazaar of Kathmandu.

These were the findings of a group of young Nepalese journalists
committed to the cause of conservation of ecology and protection of
wildlife.  These journalists, who have formed an organisation to work
for their cause under the banner of Nepal Forum of Environmental
Journalist (NAFEZ), were here to investigate the racket.

The team consisting of a freelance journalist, who is the convener of
the Wildlife Watch programme, Mangal Man Shakya and members, Prateek
Bhandary of Sagarmatha Daily and Girish Giri of Kantipur publications,
posing as traders from Nepal, entered Chiria bazaar and bought some
beautiful birds.  While some of the birds were priced between Rs 250 and
Rs 2,000, the big Cuckatoo was being sold at Rs 50,000.  "You just tell
us the kind of bird you want and the number, we'll get it for you," is
what the traders promised.  The traders in the city have more birds than
in many zoos in India and Nepal, they observed.

The journalists gave detail of one person who had sold 10,000 birds of
different species to traders in Karachi.  In July 1995, a consignment
was sent to Pakistan and payment of Rs 8 lakh was made to the concerned
person.  Over a period of one and half years, more than 12,350 birds
were sent to Pakistan by the same trader.  He also paid minimal customs
duty, showing price of each bird at 70 to 75 paise each.

The person had been getting permission to supply common birds to
Pakistan from the forest officials of Nepal.  In fact, a pair of clouded
leopards was seized from his shop selling the birds and animals.
Another consignment was dispatched to a trader in Machhua Toli.

Shakya said that the Nepalese government became aware of the problem
only after a meeting of Committee on International Trade on Flora and
Fauna (CITS) was held at Kathmandu a few years ago.  Senior ministers
and officials of the government of Nepal and India participated in the
conference and came to know that an international treaty, which has been
signed by 140 countries, prohibits any type of trade in birds and
animals.

Even ordinary birds cannot be traded.  The government then turned down
the proposal to renew the licence of the trader.  In fact, there are
five big shops dealing in birds right in the heart of the Bag bazaar
where most of the birds are brought in from Mirshikar Toli.

"All our efforts to check the trade would fail unless the Bihar
government does something about it.  It appears that the government is
deliberately ignoring the issue because the traders belong to a
particular community, which has good equations with the present
government," they observed.

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