Kangaroos in Bengal, and the sordid tale of exotic pets trafficking

The discovery of a dead joey (baby kangaroo) and the spotting of three more from different parts of Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal have stunned the forest department and people alike.

Forest officials are perplexed how kangaroos were found in North Bengal, thousands of kilometres away from their natural habitat in Australia and New Guinea. The dead joey was found in Nepali Bustee near Farabari area of Siliguri town during the day, and the live ones were rescued from Gajaldoba and Dabgram-Farabari on Friday night. Last month, a kangaroo was rescued from a goods truck in Alipurduar’s Barobisha along the West Bengal-Assam boundary and two persons from Hyderabad were arrested for trafficking the marsupial.

A West Bengal forest official said the rescued kangaroos are being given medical treatment. He suspects the kangaroos could have been brought to India via Nepal. The official said that the animals were probably being transported in small containers inside cramped spaces; the moment the smugglers came to know of security checks, they abandoned them on the forested roadside and escaped.

Several videos of the kangaroos spotted by people in Jalpaiguri went viral. One such video shows the kangaroos eating grass with people surrounding the hapless animal with their mobile cameras.

One belief was that these kangaroos must have escaped from a nearby zoo, but Indian Forest Service officer (IFS) Parveen Kaswan said no zoo nearby houses a kangaroo.

However, people in the know of animal smuggling aren’t surprised by the spotting of kangaroos in India. According to the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, between 2018 and 2020, about 2,054 cases were registered for killing or illegal trafficking of wild animals in India. During this period, 3,836 people were arrested for animal trafficking.

Here's a video.
Just look at the poor, distraught animals who are clearly in a state of shock.pic.twitter.com/eVEceWGAHP

— Soumyadipta (@Soumyadipta) April 2, 2022

The Indian star tortoise is the most smuggled tortoise species in the world. India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have emerged as main smuggling points though the international trade in the species is completely banned.

Got this on WhatsApp. It looks like fled away from Zoo…anyone know the reality@IndiAves @ParveenKaswan pic.twitter.com/4WWWYwPVVQ

— Sudhakar Kumar (@MyPicsSpeaks) April 2, 2022

The Smuggling in India Report 2019-2020, published by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, states that since trade in Indian species is completely banned, smugglers have shifted their focus to exotic species.

Legal loopholes

As per a report published by Mongabay-India, smugglers could be taking advantage of the Voluntary Disclosure Scheme issued in 2020 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

The Voluntary Disclosure Scheme was an amnesty scheme under which Indians could declare possession of any exotic live species. The declarer would not be required to provide any documentation pertaining to the exotic species if the same is declared within six months of the date of the issue of the advisory, a period which was later extended to March 15. More than 30,000 Indians applied for the amnesty scheme up to March, as per a report published by IndiaSpend.

The amnesty scheme was aimed at streamlining the process of import and develop an inventory of exotic species listed under the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species, wildlife smugglers might have started using it to their advantage as well.

The presence of the kangaroos is solid evidence of the rampant trafficking in India, which is a global hub of exotic pets, said media reports quoting wildlife experts. A Wire Science report said the north-eastern border is the preferred route of smugglers.

Kangaroos are relatively new to the collection. Parrots, cockatiels, macaws, lovebirds, lemurs and rhinoceros iguanas are among the most popular exotic species, the report added.