Lok Sabha Question No. 160 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-06-21
Subject: Poaching and Trafficking of Wildlife
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Deepak Baij

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 160 TO BE ANSWERED ON 21.06.2019

## Poaching and Trafficking of Wildlife

## 160. SHRI DEEPAK BAIJ:

Will  the  Minister  of  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND  CLIMATE  CHANGE  be pleased to state:

- (a) whether as per records of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, a number of tigers have been killed by poachers in protected areas from the year 2012 to 2018 and if so, the details thereof, State/UT-wise;
- (b) whether  trafficking  of  rare  wildlife  is  the  main  reason  for  poaching  and  if  so,  the details thereof;
- (c) the  total  number  of  people  arrested  and  convicted  for  poaching  and  trafficking  of wildlife from the year 2012 to till date;
- (d) the details of steps taken/being taken by the Government to check poaching; and
- (e) the  reasons  for  not  being  successful  in  implementing  anti-poaching  measures effectively?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## (SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)

- (a) Confirmed cases of poaching and seizures from the year 2012 to 2018 are at Annexure-I.
- (b) Along with smuggling, poaching is also attributed to secondary killing of rare and endangered species of wildlife.
- (c) As per the available records of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau based on the  information  received  from  the  State  Forest  and  Police  Authorities,  9253 people have been  arrested  in  wildlife  poaching  cases  since  2012  to  2018  in India.
- (d) The steps taken/being taken by the Government of India through the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to check poaching is at Annexure-II.
- (e) Due to initiatives taken by the Government of India, anti-poaching measures have been successfully implemented to control poaching.

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## ANNEXURE-I

## ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (a)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED  QUESTION  NO.  160  ON  POACHING  AND  TRAFFICKING  OF WILDLIFE DUE FOR REPLY ON 21.06.2019

## Confirmed cases of poaching and seizures from the year 2012 to 2018

## A. Poaching cases from 2012 to 2018

| State             |   2012 |   2013 |   2014 |   2015 |   2016 |   2017 |   2018 |   Total |
|-------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|---------|
| Andhra Pradesh    |      0 |      0 |      1 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      1 |       2 |
| Arunachal Pradesh |      1 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |       1 |
| Assam             |      3 |      7 |      2 |      0 |      4 |      2 |      0 |      18 |
| Bihar             |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      2 |      0 |      0 |       2 |
| Karnataka         |      1 |      7 |      0 |      4 |      4 |      5 |      3 |      24 |
| Kerala            |      2 |      3 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |       5 |
| Madhya Pradesh    |      4 |      2 |      2 |      2 |      8 |      9 |      4 |      31 |
| Maharashtra       |      4 |      4 |      0 |      1 |      1 |      7 |      3 |      20 |
| Nagaland          |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      1 |      0 |      0 |       1 |
| Odisha            |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      2 |       2 |
| Tamil Nadu        |      2 |      0 |      5 |      1 |      0 |      2 |      0 |      10 |
| Telangana         |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      1 |      0 |      0 |       1 |
| Uttar Pradesh     |      4 |      0 |      1 |      2 |      0 |      1 |      2 |      10 |
| Uttarakhand       |      2 |      6 |      2 |      2 |      0 |      1 |      0 |      13 |
| West Bengal       |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      1 |       1 |
| Total             |     23 |     29 |     13 |     12 |     21 |     27 |     16 |     141 |

## B. Seizure cases from 2012 to 2018

| State          |   2012 |   2013 |   2014 |   2015 |   2016 |   2017 |   2018 |   Total |
|----------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|---------|
| Andhra Pradesh |      0 |      0 |      2 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |       2 |
| Assam          |      0 |      0 |      0 |      2 |      2 |      5 |      1 |      10 |
| Bihar          |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      2 |      0 |      0 |       2 |
| Chattisgarh    |      1 |      0 |      2 |      1 |      2 |      2 |      1 |       9 |
| Haryana        |      1 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |       1 |
| Delhi          |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      2 |      0 |      0 |       2 |
| Karnataka      |      4 |      1 |      0 |      0 |      1 |      1 |      2 |       9 |
| Kerala         |      0 |      1 |      1 |      0 |      1 |      0 |      0 |       3 |
| Madhya Pradesh |      3 |      0 |      1 |      4 |      1 |      1 |      2 |      12 |
| Maharashtra    |      1 |      0 |      3 |      0 |      1 |      0 |      0 |       5 |
| Nagaland       |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      1 |       1 |
| Odisha         |      1 |      0 |      0 |      1 |      0 |      0 |      0 |       2 |
| Rajasthan      |      1 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |       1 |
| Tamil Nadu     |      1 |      0 |      2 |      0 |      1 |      0 |      0 |       4 |
| Telangana      |      0 |      0 |      1 |      0 |      1 |      0 |      0 |       2 |
| Uttar Pradesh  |      1 |      0 |      0 |      2 |      1 |      1 |      1 |       6 |
| Uttarakhand    |      1 |      2 |      0 |      1 |      6 |      1 |      0 |      11 |
| West Bengal    |      1 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      1 |      0 |      0 |       2 |
| Total          |     16 |      4 |     12 |     11 |     22 |     11 |      8 |      84 |

## ANNEXURE-II

## ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (d)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED  QUESTION  NO.  160  ON  POACHING  AND  TRAFFICKING  OF WILDLIFE DUE FOR REPLY ON 21.06.2019

## Steps  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  of  India  through  the  National  Tiger Conservation Authority to check poaching

## 1. Generic measures

-  Providing assistance to States under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of 'Project Tiger' for protection, infrastructure and antipoaching operations (including deployment of Tiger Protection Force and Special Tiger Protection Force)
-  Providing grant through NTCA for patrolling in tiger rich sensitive forest areas outside tiger reserves
-  Alerting the States as and when required
-  Disseminating  of  real  time  information  of  backward  /  forward  linkages  relating  to poachers / wildlife criminals.
-  Advising the States for combing forest floor to check snares / traps
-  Performing supervisory  field  visits  through  the  National  Tiger  Conservation  Authority and its regional offices
-  Using information technology for improved surveillance (e-Eye system) using thermal cameras
-  Launching tiger reserve level monitoring using camera trap to keep a photo ID database of individual tigers
-  Preparing a national database of individual tiger photo captures to establish linkage with body parts seized or dead tigers
-  Assisting States to deploy local workforce in a big way for protection to complement the efforts of field staff [In all, approximately 25 lakh mandays are generated annually with 50%  central  assistance  amounting  to  around  Rs.  25  crores  (excluding  matching  50% share  given  by  States)  under  Project  Tiger.    Many  local  tribes  constitute  such  local workforce  (besides  non-tribals),  eg.  Baigas,  Gonds  in  Madhya  Pradesh,  Gonds  in Maharashtra, Chenchus in Andhra Pradesh, Sholigas in Karnataka, Gujjars in Uttarakhand and Irulas in Tamil Nadu to name a few].
-  Initiative taken for collaboration of National Tiger Conservation Authority and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau towards an online tiger / wildlife crime tracking / reporting system in tiger reserves and to coordinate with INTERPOL for checking trans-border trade of wildlife products.
-  Insurance / Corpus Fund for staff of Kaziranga Tiger Reserve.
-  Motivating tiger  reserve  administration  /  tiger  States  to  ensure  conviction  of  criminals through pursuance of cases in different courts.
-  Bilateral co-operation with neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Russia.
-  Sharing  of  information  on  seizure  of  body  parts  including  skin  of  tigers  among  tiger range countries to ascertain source area.  India has already made a proposal in this regard in CITES CoP-17 in Johannesburg which was agreed by member countries.

## 2. Security Plan

The  National  Tiger  Conservation  Authority  has  prepared  generic  guidelines  for formulating a Security Plan for each tiger reserve which is operationalized in the overarching Tiger  Conservation  Plan  which  is  legally  mandated  under  section  38  V  of  the  Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

## 3. Security Audit

The National Tiger Conservation Authority has developed a framework for carrying out the assessment of the security threats and for formulating site specific security plan which is now being carried out in 25 different tiger reserves in Phase-I.

## 4. M-STrIPES  (Monitoring  System  for  Tigers  Intensive-Protection  &  Ecological Status)

This is an android application which has three distinct modules namely Patrol module, Ecological  module  and  Conflict  module.  The  Patrol  module inter-alia is  a  mechanism  to ensure accountability of front line staff vis-à-vis antipoaching efforts and useful for the tiger reserve  management  to  strengthen  protection  measures,  based  on  data  that  is  generated through M-STrIPES.

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