Unnoticed by the Forest officials, in 2012 live monitor lizards kept in cages were sold at the fish market in Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The price varied on demand of the day but was in the region of Rs 1,000/- per lizard. People who bought them believed that their meat was good for treating hip and back-aches and oil for arthritis.

However, the highest number of monitor lizards sold occurs on the Sunday before Deepavali. The ones available at this time of the year in Tamil Nadu’s Kancheepuram market are no more than 1½ kgs in weight and yield 300 grams of meat.

In 2013 three monitor lizards were found on two men from Tamil Nadu, trying to sell them in Bengaluru. The lizards were rescued by the Police and handed over to the Forest Department.

Poaching monitor lizards occurs every now and then. At the Bhadra Tiger Reserve in 2014, seven poachers were caught. A full grown live monitor lizard was found in their den in the forest. They had planned on killing and cooking it for dinner.

Later that year a giant monitor lizard strayed into a house in Bareilly. Four feet in length with a foot long tongue, it hissed like a snake making people think it was small sized alligator. Unlike earlier, when a similar lizard had been caught in the area and released on the banks of the Ramganga, this time the Forest ranger who came to catch it returned with two construction workers and with their help illegally speared it to death and took away the body. Typically, the Sub-Divisional Forest Officer denied knowledge of the incident!

In June 2015 seven persons were arrested for poaching monitor lizards in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur forest range. The forest officers caught the poachers red-handed while chopping up the lizards for their meat.

Rescue and rehabilitation has however occurred elsewhere. For example in 2015 a monitor lizard was successfully rescued from the campus of La Martiniere for Girls, Kolkata. In another incident also in 2015, a two foot long monitor lizard was rescued from a water tank in an industrial area of Vasai near Mumbai. It had laid 16 eggs in the tank of which 13 could be recovered.

In July 2019 the wildlife department of Haryana caught 2 poachers (7 accomplices of the arrested hunters unfortunately escaped from the spot) with 8 live and two dead monitor lizards in Radaur area of Yamunanagar. (A jackal and a jungle cat were also confiscated.)

Tokay Geckos

The Walk Through India website has also listed the Tokay gecko as one of the five most heavily trafficked animals of India. They say it is a nocturnal arboreal gecko that lives in the rainforests of North East India and is considered a symbol of good luck and fertility in many East Asian countries and therefore poached in Asia for the medicinal trades.

West Bengal is known to smuggle not only cattle but also wild life across the border. Tokay geckos, turtles, Himalayan Mynas, and others are routinely smuggled out of India in hundreds. While Tokay geckos (colourful lizards) are common in Manipur, the others mainly originate from UP where they are bought for as little as one-fifth the price sold. Demand is mainly from countries like Thailand, Malaysia and China with the transit route being Bangladesh. These creatures are killed and consumed for culinary, medical or religious reasons.

Tokay geckos which are listed in Schedule III of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, are also smuggled out from Bihar to Nepal.

The trade in Tokay geckos is increasing:
2014: 39 seizures worth Rs 2.21 crore
2015: 61 seizures worth Rs 11.16 crore
2016: 65 seizures worth Rs 46.62 crore
2017 (till August): 82 seizures worth Rs 187.69 crore

In 2018 over 300 gecko traffickers were arrested in several states, more than 1,000 geckos confiscated and released back into the wild.

After capture the low-weight geckos are injected with mercury to make them heavier and therefore costlier. That they suffer and die in a couple of days’ time is of no concern whatsoever of the smugglers who are not only criminals, but cruel criminals.

BWC was therefore pleased when in August 2019 the United Nations’ Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) at their meeting in Geneva voted to upgrade the protection given and ban international trade in Tokay geckos. We hope this will help in stopping or at least curtailing the illegal trade.

The industry uses the term “harvesting” in place of the word “killing” reptiles for their skins. Conservationists who are in favour of the reptile skin trade come out with the ridiculous argument that “harvesting” programmes help conserve species – and provide livelihood benefits. They do not consider reptiles as living beings or that they are important to the ecosystem and some like the gecko are pollinators.

In September 2011, FIAPO approached BWC for guidance on stopping advertisements in publications such as Vogue and sale of such animal products ranging from fur and feathers to python skins.

This reminded BWC to again draw the attention of the Ministry of Environment & Forests about wild life skins such as those of snakes, pythons, crocodiles, monitor lizards, and feathers and furs of endangered species that are imported into India. (These genuine wild life skins should not be confused with similar looking imported imitations.) They came in as finished goods consisting of footwear and handbags costing lakhs of rupees, to watchstraps of expensive wrist watches, even mobile cases. The advertisements and brand promotions targeted those Indians seeking such ill-conceived status symbols.

In fact, these branded goods were and are brazenly advertised in high-society magazines such as Vogue, Hello, and some times in unexpected ones like Businessworld. Quite often the "price is available on request" and an order needed to be placed after which the item was imported for the purchaser. The products were therefore not on display at their outlets so government raids did not give the desired results.

It was then further pointed out that the government should not feel that it does not concern India because the skins are not of Indian origin. Imports should be clamped down upon and not overlooked because such imported items result in more poaching of wild life here. BWC feels that just like the ban on trade in ivory of Indian and African elephants which falls under CITES can be implemented, trade of other wild life skins can be stopped, and not only on paper.

BWC therefore requested that government warn outlets against promotion and import, and the Customs authorities spot and take action against importers of such illegal items.

We were eagerly awaiting positive action and response from the government. Meanwhile, letters were written by animal activists to Vogue asking “Is animal cruelty so much in vogue?”

Imports of such wild life items that surreptitiously landed in India needed to be clamped down upon and not overlooked because they positively resulted in more poaching of wild life here. It should also not be forgotten that many leather goods made in India are exported to designers abroad and should they ask for say snake skin, the Indian manufacturers may oblige and declare the items as calf leather embossed to look like reptile skin, but on reaching their destination, the items would be labelled as genuine snake skin.

Wildlife poachers had already begun to illegally use India Post to smuggle products out of the country. Deer antlers, reptile skins, elephant-ivory and tiger-nails have been intercepted, but unfortunately a high percentage of parcels have left the country undetected. Moreover, the culprits had not been located because the senders’ addresses on the parcels were fictitious. We therefore alerted the Department of Posts and suggested that each and every parcel that goes abroad be rechecked at the Foreign Post Offices via screening prior to onward despatch out of India.

In May 2013 BWC wrote to the Minister of Finance requesting that appropriate action via the Central Board of Excise and Customs be taken. By then a few got round the law by importing reptile skin like that of anaconda (similar to python) and got the items discreetly mentioned in articles covering luxury goods. Some stores, having got away with bringing in items without difficulty, began stocking “Limited edition for India” goods like alligator and ostrich clutch bags, whereas other brands continued with their customisation “Made to Order” exclusive and expensive offers of crocodile and other exotic skin “masterpieces”.

On 3 January 2017 the Directorate of Foreign Trade issued an amendment (DGFT Notification No 33/2015-2020) to the import policy prohibiting reptile skins, mink, fox, and chinchilla fur. Moreover, on 28 March 2018 DGFT Public Notice 59 stated “Policy Condition: Import of seal skin, in any form, is prohibited” under Chapter 41, 42 and 43 of ITC (HS), 2017.

Unfortunately the 3 January 2017 Policy was reversed from “Prohibited” to “Free” vide Notification No 55/2015-2020 dated 7 January 2021. On getting to know in April 2021 BWC approached the Prime Minister and the Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, as well as the Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, to again reverse and place reptile skins, mink, fox, chinchilla and add all animal furs in the Prohibited category of the Import Policy particularly in view of foreign fur farms having closed down due to Covid-19. BWC got to later know that the removal of the import prohibition had been taken up by the Council for Leather Exports and thus their request was granted.

Not only reptile skins, but there was an attempt in October 2019 to smuggle 7 healthy reptiles (1 green tree python, 1 scrub python and 5 endangered species of lizards) from Malaysia into India. The Indian Customs officials at Chennai discovered them with two passengers and decided to send the reptiles back to Kuala Lumpur.