Forest officials of the Baikunthpur Forest Division in West Bengal initially did not believe their ears when locals told them kangaroos had been sighted hopping about in the forests under their jurisdiction. However, late on Friday evening, they found not one but three kangaroos from the narrow forested patches bordering the State’s Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts. On Saturday morning, the carcass of a kangaroo was found in the Farabari area nearby, taking the number of kangaroos recorded in north Bengal to four.
“This is very unusual for us — to rescue kangaroos, which are not native to the continent [of Asia]. Earlier, we have rescued animals that were being smuggled through the corridor that starts from the northeast [of India] to north Bengal, and we heightened security,” Debal Roy, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Chief Wildlife Warden-North Bengal, said. Mr. Roy added that there had been inputs from informants on the smuggling of animals, and security had been increased on the roads to apprehend wildlife smugglers.
While no one has been arrested and the forest official are not sure where these animals were heading, he pointed out that kangaroos were certainly being transported in small containers inside cramped spaces, and the moment the smugglers got a whiff of security checks, they left the animals on the forested roadside and slipped away. Hari Krishnan, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Baikunthpur Forest Division, said that the rescued kangaroos had been handed over to the Bengal Safari Zoo in Siliguri. He confirmed that the rescued animals were sub-adults (not full grown).
Smuggling of exotic birds and animals, mostly to be sold as pets, is not uncommon in West Bengal, owing to its geographical location, sharing its borders with the northeastern States, and Nepal and Bangladesh. The seizure of kangaroos is, however, a more complicated story. About a fortnight ago, forest officials seized one kangaroo in the Buxa Forest Division in north Bengal and arrested one person. The person in custody produced a “supply order” from the Indore Zoo. According to the rules of the Central Zoo Authority, zoos cannot purchase animals through a “supply order”. Animals can be procured for zoos through the exchange of other animals, or from the personal collection of people, or through donations. The supply order was directed to a farm in Mizoram. Sources in the West Bengal Forest Department said that their Chief Wildlife Warden had written to the head of Mizoram’s Wildlife Department, and the latter had denied any such farm existed in that State.
Species not native to India are not protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 but for the possession of species listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), owners have to declare them in the ‘Parivesh’ portal of the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC). Meanwhile, the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021 was introduced in the Lok Sabha, which seeks to increase the number of species protected under the law, and to implement the CITES.
Experts said the kangaroos were being smuggled into India from Myanmar and from the northeast. Smuggling of exotic birds and animals, which are kept as pets and fetch a very high price, is an organised crime. In June 2019, a lion cub was rescued in Kolkata from wildlife smugglers.
