Illegal wildlife trade: When creatures of the sea take flight

In a cruel irony, seahorses, whales, and sharks — creatures from the sea — are taking flight, literally and for the wrong reasons. Illegal wildlife trade is taking to the skies, and enforcement agencies say that smuggling of marine life has been on the rise for four years. Massive haul The enforcement agencies, from 2023 to July this year, conducted 66 operations across Karnataka and recovered porcupine quills, Alexandrine parakeets, elephant tusks, spotted deer skin and horns, bison horns, 170 kilos of Stony corals, tiger nails, 9-foot long python skins, 55 ball pythons, 17 Thailand king cobras, capuchins, spider monkeys, spotted deer antlers, elephant bones, hippo tusks, owls, woodpeckers, jungle cat paws, nails and teeth, wild boar teeth, jackal teeth, red sand boa, otter skin, pangolin scales, 937 monitor lizard penis, 125 sea fans, leopard nails and civet cat jaws. “Illegal wildlife trade also impacts marine ecosystems, endangering the livelihood of fishing communities who depend on these species,” noted Rebecca Lewis, another Lead Researcher at CWT. Role of public effort Curbing illegal wildlife trade also crucially depends on a collective public effort, said Kritika Balaji, Project Manager of the Counter Wildlife Trafficking Programme, WCS-India.