GUWAHATI:
The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) and biodiversity conservation organisation Aaranyak jointly conducted a sensitization workshop for Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel and security personnel of various airlines, including Indigo, Spicejet, Air Asia, Vistara engaged at Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport for ramping up vigilance against burgeoning wildlife trafficking that has reached an alarming proportion across the globe posing threats to the nation.
The workshop was organised in the backdrop of airlines and airports being used as international traffic routes for smuggling of wildlife products, and Northeast being a biodiversity hotspot, the region becoming more vulnerable to such crimes.
Dr Jimmy Borah, senior manager of the Legal and Advocacy Division (LAD) of Aaranyak a substantive audio-visual presentation on the global wildlife crime scene, routes of wildlife trafficking, and various modus operandi applied by the wildlife crime racket to dodge security checks and baggage scanning in various airports.
In his presentation, he projected the latest picture of the 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 national security because of its intricate relation with arms smuggling and terrorism, wildlife crimes can devastate tourism and thereby result in loss of income for the community as a whole and loss revue to the governments, it poses danger to the 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 per cent 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,” Borah said.
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 the project officer of LAD, Aaranyak Ivy Farheen Hussain.