HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, Aug 23: Increasingly, airports and airlines are being used as international trafficking routes for wildlife products, and in this context, airports in the bordering Northeast India, a biodiversity hotspot, are particularly vulnerable to such trafficking, and it is imperative that airport/airline security staff be extra vigilant when detecting such goods.
The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) and premier biodiversity conservation organisation Aaranyak on Monday joined hands to conduct a sensitisation workshop for Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel and security personnel of various airlines including Indigo, Spicejet, Air Asia, Vistara engaged in Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport here on the urgent need to ramp up vigilance against burgeoning wildlife trafficking that has reached an alarming proportion across the globe posing threats to the nation.
Making a substantive audio-visual presentation on the global wildlife crime scene, routes of wildlife trafficking, various modus operandi applied by the wildlife crime racket to dodge security checks and baggage scanning in various airports, Dr Jimmy Borah, senior manager of Legal and Advocacy Division (LAD) of Aaranyak projected the latest picture of wildlife trafficking scene to alert over 50 participants in the workshop held in the LGBI Airport here about how they should pull up their socks to defeat the design of the racket of wildlife trafficking.
Dr Borah flagged that it was of prime importance to prevent wildlife trafficking for these significant reasons – it poses threat to the national security because of its intricate relation with arms smuggling and terrorism, wildlife crimes can devastates tourism and thereby result in loss of income for the community as a whole and loss revue to the governments, it poses danger to environment and global health, it being an organised crime tends to induce corruption in the system and it leads to loss of tax revenue to the government.
About 31 percent of worldwide wildlife trafficking is driven by the desire for trophies, exotic medicines (based on superstitious beliefs), and luxury products made from wildlife parts, he said. To check the trafficking of wildlife, the CISF and airline security personnel need to be alert on air routes as well as in their checked-in luggage.
During the workshop, WCCB assistant director Jawahar Baro presented seized wildlife items to the participants to raise awareness levels among the airline personnel, CISF personnel and security personnel.
CISF commandant Lal Mohan Thakur and the chief security officer of Adani Group, Major S S Aimol, graced the workshop that was anchored and coordinated by project officer of LAD, Aaranyak Ivy Farheen Hussain.
