Chattogram now a transit for wildlife trafficking

Chattogram has become a transit route for wildlife trafficking by poachers and smugglers due to the indifference and lack of proper monitoring of the authorities concerned.

The organised crime came to light once again after Chattogram police successfully thwarted several consignments of endangered wild animals while being smuggled from remote hilly areas of Bandarban and Khagrachhari via Chattogram.

Investigators and the forest department said several syndicates comprising international rackets have been involved in the smuggling.

Investigator also said wildlife traffickers work in several stages -- from collecting to sales -- adopting different techniques to dodge the eyes of law enforcers.

The recent seizure of wild animals, including Hoolock gibbons, porcupines, fishing cats, leopard cats, and Kalij pheasant -- from October 27 to November 8 -- indicates that the smugglers are desperate and at the same time, well organised in the crime.

So far, police have detained five carriers in three incidents in Chattogram's Lohagara upazila. The detainees were produced before the mobile court where the court sentenced them to different jail terms, while the animals were handed over to the forest department.

It could not be known where the smugglers were taking the animals. However, the hoolock, the fishing cats and the leopard cats were headed to Riazuddin Bazar of the port city and from there to somewhere else.

Citing the primary interrogation, forest officials and police personnel said the endangered wild animals were being collected from remote parts of Bandarban's Ali Kadam, Lama and its adjacent parts with the help of locals.

Meanwhile, in November, police arrested a man in Savar with a wild monkey and an endangered hoolock gibbon as he was smuggling the animals to Satkhira from Chattogram.

According to wildlife crime control and biodiversity conservation officials, smugglers collect the animals from the deep forests of Ali Kadam, Naikhongchhari, Rowangchhari, Chattogram's Banshkhali, and Lohagara's Chunti.

The animals are later transported to the port city via Satkania and Lohagara or Chakaria upazila.

Police said before the latest arrest in Lohagara, tusks of Asian elephants were seized from Karnaphuli and Hathazari upazila of Chattogram last year.

Police submitted the charge sheet implicating two in connection with the case. However, they failed to trace the origin and destination of the animal parts.

Talking to The Daily Star, OC Atiqur Rahman of Lohagara Police Station, said, "The carriers told us that the Ulluks (hoolock gibbons), fishing cats, leopard cats and Kalij pheasants were captured by a group of locals in Bandarban and handed over to them for sale at Riazuddin Bazar."

"After the two latest recoveries, we have been able to confirm that the destinations of the items are different and an international racket is working behind it," he added.

OC Atiq also said, "During our investigation, we found that the smugglers used to send the animals in local buses or goods-laden trucks to Dhaka and other areas. We have thwarted three attempts by the smugglers of transporting the animals."

According to the wildlife management and nature conservation department, a total of 425 animals, including different kinds of birds, snakes, cats, bears, gibbons, wild pigs, Asian palm civets, and Pangolins, were smuggled to Chattogram from different areas in the 2021-2022 fiscal year.

Md Sanaullah Patwaruy, director of Wildlife Crime Control Unit (WCCU), told The Daily Star, "Not only from Bandarban, but the endangered wild animals are also being smuggled from the deep forests in Myanmar and India. Later, they are transported to other destinations."

"As per my investigation, the animals were smuggled outside the country via Satkhira. The smugglers follow the methods of the gold and drug smugglers to dodge law enforcers. They have frequently changed the transport system, caging and packaging. As we have identified the Chattogram route, they will find another alternative route," said Sanaullah.

CLIENTS ARE AFFLUENT

WCCU officials said the customers of the wild animals are mostly from outside the country and are very affluent. They mostly collect the animals for their private resorts or zoos.

Smugglers contact their local agents, divided into several sections, to collect the animals for the clients.

"We have information regarding where the animals are kept in Chattogram. We have already shared the information with Interpol. However, we failed to reach the kingpin of the syndicate," he added.

This correspondent visited the Riazuddin Bazar bird market last week and talked to several sellers, who denied selling any kind of endangered wild animals.

Police and the wild crime control unit officials said several secret groups have been established on online platforms like Facebook for the trade, where sales of different animals -- from leopard cats to endangered species of birds -- take place in exchange for a huge amount of the money.

On June 24, WCCU personnel recovered two cubs of leopard cats from Cumilla's Courtbari area, which were advertised as "Leopard cubs" on a Facebook group.