By Purushottam P. Khatri

Kathmandu, Jan. 23: Police often seize wildlife hides from across the country. But, according to the present legal provisions, Nepal Police doesn’t have the right to file a charge sheet in such cases.
Wherever they seize smuggled organs and hides of wild animals, police must report and hand over the cases to the concerned District Forest Office for further legal proceedings.
Police administration even don’t know whether the poachers, smugglers, or big racketeers involved in such smuggling cases got released or convicted. Also, the District Forest Offices don’t keep the records of such verdicts until they prepare and submit their annual report.
It is especially the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police, which looks into the cases of the smuggling of animal hide. For conducting a separate operation in such smuggling cases, a separate unit was established at CIB under the command of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP).
Anyone involved in poaching and trading of conserved species is liable to up to 15-year jail term and a fine not exceeding one million rupees or both as per the National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act 1973.
According to the report of the CIB, from mid-October 2018 as of today, their operation team had seized 7.537 kilograms scales of pangolins, three pieces of bear bile, hide of a tiger, two skins of leopard and three of chari bagh, a horn of rhino, six pieces of musk pods, and seven skins of clouded leopard. In these cases, 61 people were arrested. And the CIB forwarded the cases to District Forest Offices recommending them to file charge sheets accordingly.
According to Superintendent of Police and spokesperson at CIB, Bel Bahadur Pandey, most of the arrested animal hide racketeers were identified only as mules as actual racketeers always found ways to escape.
Meanwhile, the Division Forest Office, Kathmandu’s statistics showed that 1,468 different types of birds, 92 leopard skins, 94 red panda skins, 26 horns of rhinos, 400 kilograms of pangolin scales, 19 pieces of bear bile, 19 skins of tiger, 18 pieces of musk pods, eight skins of jungle cats (Ban Biralo), and 14 pieces of elephant trunks were seized from mid-April 2017 to mid-April 2018. Within that year, the Forest Offices across the country had registered cases against 371 persons in respective courts.
From Kathmandu alone, CIB and other police units, as of today, have detained 726 Nepalis, 44 Indians, 11 Chinese, two Saudis, two Americans, two Turks and one person each from Japan, Cambodia, Thailand, and Pakistan for their alleged involvement in the illegal trading. SP Pandey said that most the arrested persons in such cases hailed from Nuwakot, Kathmandu, Sindhupalchowk, Kavre, Makwanpur, Dhading, Rasuwa, and Gorkha.
Specially, racketeers including mules were found choosing particular places like Balaju, Gongabu, Maharajgunj, Kapan, Chabahil, Gaushala, Ratnapark, Old Bus Park, Bag Bazaar, Swoyambhu, Banasthali, Tinkune, Koteshwore and Sitapaila as their best locations for illegal trade of wild animal hides and other parts.
According to Santa Kumar Shrestha, assistant forest officer at the Division Forest Office, Kathmandu, they had registered 68 cases related to illegal selling and purchase of animal hides in the last fiscal year (2018/19). In the current fiscal year, the Office has already registered 24 cases in different courts.
According to Shrestha, all these seized animal hides should be taken to Chitwan National Park (CNP) and the Armed Forest Guard Training Centre, Tikauli, for their collection and safety.
Until the final verdict comes for respective cases, all the seized items should be kept as it is inside the CNP and the Centre, assistant officer Shrestha said. He said all the seized animal organs should compulsorily be destroyed.
On 22 May, 2017, the CNP had destroyed more than 4,000 wildlife parts of 48 different species including 67 tiger skins and 357 rhino horns that were seized from 1997 to 2016.
Deputy Inspector General and spokesperson of Nepal Police Headquarters, Shailesh Thapa Kshetri, said that it was not only the Nepal Police responsible for control and minimization of the smuggling. “Besides us, there are Nepali Army, the National Forest Offices, and other stakeholders, who are equally responsible,” he said.
Bishwonath Oli, Secretary at the Ministry of Forest, said that actually the seized animal hides and other parts don’t have a value in themselves. “It is us (human beings) or illegal traders who are making them priceless,” he said. “Those animal parts must be destroyed in fire.”
The present law related to animal hide has allowed to hand over some portion of animal hide to research institutes and academic establishments, but this provision has not come into effect.