COVID-19 Pandemic is No Excuse to Refrain from Protecting Endangered Wildlife

(Left) Kunjok Lama; (Right) Wildlife smugglers and their seized contraband in Rasuwa.

In the past few months, the world has been gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has forced people around the world to take necessary precautions such as staying home to work, wearing masks in public places, and refraining from travelling internationally. However, the pandemic also came with unexpected side effects. One of them was an increase in poaching in Africa and Asia as a result of poachers taking advantage of the global lockdown to conduct their illegal activities. In response, wildlife personnel swung into action and have since been battling the threat of poaching and illegal wildlife smuggling in those two places. One of the latest incidences was the arrest of an infamous ringleader of a wildlife smuggling gang, who was accused for smuggling tiger bones and pelts to China via Nepal for decades. His name was Kunjok Lama, and he was recently caught in Kathmandu's Baudha neighborhood on June 25. He was then brought to Langtang National Park, which handed him over to the Rasuwa District Court and was held in custody.

Some 130 kg of confiscated leopard and tiger bones and pelts.

The hunt for Kunjok Lama goes back about twenty years prior to the pandemic when Indian security forces seized a stockpile of endangered animal body parts in the city of Ghaziabad. Those arrested during the bust identified Lama as the chief mastermind of the smuggling ring. Since then, poachers caught during every seizure named Lama as the ringleader. In 2005, a Nepali Army patrol stationed at Langtang National Park captured four people transporting 36 leopard skins, 5 tiger pelts, and 113 kilograms of tiger bones to the China-Nepal border in a truck. They also named Kunjok Lama, along with Dondhip Lama and Nudup Lama as the masterminds. The park warden at the time sentenced two of the arrested to fifteen years and one to five years in jail with support from the Appeals and Supreme Courts. Langtang National Park gave details about Kunjok Lama to the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), which led to a 15-year-long hunt that finally ended last week with Lama's arrest.

Tiger and leopard parts and cash being given to the Nuwakot District Court.

In addition to Lama, another smuggler whose name kept coming up was Jimi Sherpa also known as Lodu Dimey. In 2005, when the police captured another border-bound truck in Rasuwa containing five tiger bones and pelts, they came to know from those arrested that Dimey was the mastermind. The police then stormed Dimey's house in Baudha and confiscated almost Rs. 4 million in cash, along with Chinese, Indian, and American banknotes. In a cache of wildlife contraband, they also discovered four human skulls that are in demand in Tibet for various rituals. A case was filed against Dimey, his wife Diki, driver Nakul Tamang and vehicle owner Suk Bahadur Tamang at the District Forest Office in Nuwakot. Dimey was fined Rs. 100,000 and his wife Rs. 60,000 in absentia while the other two were released on Rs. 100,000 bail. Seven years ago, the Patan Appeals Court sentenced Dimey, who was still at large, to five years in jail. With the help from the Interpol, he was caught in New Delhi after investigations indicated him to be involved in tiger poaching in national parks of Madhya Pradesh. Dimey was then flown back to Kathmandu, but in 2018, the Supreme Court ordered him to pay a worthless Rs. 45,000 fine and released him. Although disappointed, the police began investigating the connections between Dimey and Lama. They discovered that he was born in Dehradun, and had been under investigation in India for various crimes, which included making Nepal an accumulation center for wildlife contraband from India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh for smuggling into China. Deputy Inspector General Sahakul Thapa is hopeful that the arrest of Lama will lead the authorities to Dimey.   

Lodu Dimey arriving at the Kathmandu airport.

 

While I admire and applaud the recent efforts in capturing Kunjok Lama, I also believe that law enforcement officials and others involved in the battle against illegal poaching and wildlife smuggling should not be bogged down by the COVID-19 pandemic. Just because the numbers of reported cases and deaths from the virus keep increasing does not mean that efforts to fight wildlife-related crimes should temporarily be stopped. That would be giving poachers, smugglers, and other perpetrators involved in the illegal activities an opportunity to further decimate the populations of various endangered species. I firmly believe that efforts to protect the world's endangered wildlife should remain perpetual during the pandemic and people involved should remain active. At the same time, they should adhere to the pandemic safety protocol such as keeping face masks handy, maintaining social distance, and taking time off if feeling sick.

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