the First Chechen War, and environmental crimes like poaching and illegal timber smuggling were generally not treated as national security issues. During the post-perestroika transition, the government agencies for environment and wildlife protection experienced severe budget cuts which led to layoffs and salary reductions for wildlife rangers in places like Primorski Krai and it reduced the resources of the rangers to fight against the poachers. There has been an increasing demand for bear parts, especially bile, and it led to an increase in poaching of bears in the Russian Federation. The collapse of communism in the country had significant influence on the average Russian's economic ability to maintain his or her family. There are a large population of bears in Russia, and Russia's trade in bear parts is primarily with nearby Asian countries like South Korea and the People's Republic of China. Because of these poaching of bears become easy for Russians. Poaching of the snow leopard is a serious problem in Russia along with Afghanistan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, People’s Republic of China, Russia, Tajikstan and Uzbekistan.
The murder rate in Russia has become three times as big between 1988 and 1994 and is now among the highest in the world. In 1998, a total of 24,537,600 crimes happened in United States, while in Russia a total of 2,581,940 crimes were recorded. In 1999, the number was 23,677,800 and 3,001,748 respectively. Total recorded rapes in the United States was 93,140 and 89,110 for the years 1998 and 1999, while this number was 7,724 and 7,314 respectively for Russia.
Following is a comparison of various crimes per 1000 people from 1998 to 2000:
Crime in India
Crime in India is very common and happens in many different ways. Along with violent crimes (like homicide, robbery, and assault), and property crimes (like burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson), there are major problems with organized crime, the illegal drug trade, arms trafficking, corruption, and many other forms of crime. The most common types of crimes in India are listed below.
Organized crime is planned and done by groups of people. Their goals are to gain power and make money in Illegal ways. Common organized crimes in India include:
Many criminal organizations also commit these crimes:
India is located between the Golden Crescent (made of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran) and the Golden Triangle (made of Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos). The Golden Crescent and the Golden Triangle are the two biggest makers of opium in Asia. (Opium can be smoked on its own, or it can be made into heroin.) But their opium-making is illicit - secret and illegal. Because of India's location, a lot of this illegal opium is trafficked (snuck illegally) through India's borders.
India is the world's largest maker of legal opium. But its opium gets diverted (taken away by drug traffickers) to other countries where opium and heroin are illegal.
India is a common starting point for drug traffickers who take heroin on ships from Southwest Asian countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan, and from Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand. The heroin is then smuggled from Pakistan and Myanmar, with some heroin also shipped through Nepal. Most heroin shipped from India goes to Europe. There have been reports of heroin smuggled from Mumbai to Nigeria to get the drugs to more countries.
In Maharashtra, Mumbai is an important centre where people sell heroin. The most commonly used drug in Mumbai is "Indian heroin" (called "desi mal" by the local population). Both public transportation (road and rail transportation) and private transportation are used for this drug trade.
The Government of India has tried a few ways of fighting drug trafficking in the country. India is a party to (meaning it signed onto and agreed to follow):
According to a report published together by Oxfam, Amnesty International, and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) in 2006, there are around 40 million illegal small arms in India. This would mean that India had over half of the small arms in the entire world (the world had 75 million, according to the report).
Most of the illegal small arms end up in the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. In India, a used AK-47 costs $3,800 on the illegal black market. But a large amount of illegal small arms are made in illegal arms factories in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and sold on the black market for as little as $5.08.
Chinese pistols are in demand in the illegal small arms market in India because they are easy to get and cheaper. This creates a major problem for the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. These states are affected by Naxalism. Naxalites are groups of Communist guerrilla fighters in India. (Guerrilla fighters are civilians who attack a regular army.) Many Chinese pistols, AK-47s, and M-16 rifles are smuggled into India through the border between India and Nepal. These weapons are then used by the Naxalites, who have ties to Maoists in Nepal.
Illegal wildlife trade in India has increased. There are laws against killing some animals, taking rare plants, and smuggling them into other countries. But a report published by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in 2004 said that more traders of wildlife skins go to India than any other country. Between 1994 and 2003, there were 784 cases where the skins of tigers, leopards, or otters have been seized (taken away from illegal traders by police). Also between 1994 and 2003, police seized 698 otters who had been poached (illegally taken or killed).
Poaching of elephants is a big problem in Southern India and in the North-Eastern states of Nagaland and Mizoram. Most tiger poaching happens in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
Once they are poached, leopards, rhinoceros, reptiles, birds, insects, and rare species of plants are smuggled into the countries in Southeast Asia and the People's Republic of China. Often, poachers bring illegal animal skins from India to Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, ion the way to Tibet and China. In its report in 2004, the Environmental Investigation Agency said that there was not enough cooperation between India, Nepal, and the People's Republic of China. Because these countries were not cooperating, they could not work together to enforce anti-poaching laws, and were not interested enough in fighting wildlife crime together.
On April 1, 1973, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi launched Project Tiger, which was first started in 1972. Project Tiger was a wildlife conservation project - a project that tried to protect wildlife from being poached. Project Tiger created 23 tiger reserves (protected areas for tigers), said they had been successful, since the number of tigers in India had increased. But critics like conservationist Billy Arjan Singh said that tigers had only moved to India from Nepal because their habitat in Nepal had been destroyed - not because of wildlife policy in India.
Cyber crime - crimes done by computer - are very, very common in India. Examples of cyber crime include: