Effect of human feeding on the road mortality of Rhesus Macaques on National Highway - 7 routed along Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India

In Hindu mythology, Hanuman is worshipped as the monkey god and therefore there is a great reverence for macaques all across the country. Hindu devotees consider it their sacred duty to feed macaques along road, temples, parks and other public areas. Unfortunately, such food provisioning alters the habitat, food choice and behaviour of macaques. We studied the impact of feeding by humans on Rhesus Macaque Macaca mulatta feeding behaviour, distribution and also assessed the increased risk of accidents in the 11km road stretch of National Highway passing through Kanha-Pench corridor, from August 2009 to July 2010. Seasonal changes in macaque distribution and group sizes were assessed based on foot and vehicle transects. The numbers of road kills were monitored in early morning and late evening hours for different seasons. Five groups of macaques were occupying a minimum of 1.1 to a maximum of 1.7km stretch, together covering about 7.3km of road. Group size varied significantly in relation to the availability of food on the road. During the study, 54 macaques succumbed to road accidents. Maximum roadkill occurred during summer because of the greater inflow of tourists. Unless concerted efforts are made to increase awareness among people of the hazards of road-side feeding, incidences of macaque mortality are likely to increase

Operation Soft Gold – Integration of cyber intelligence in curbing illegal Shahtoosh trade in India

The fine wool Shahtoosh obtained from the Tibetan Antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii Abel, 1826) which is endemic to Tibetan Plateau, is highly valued for its rarity, warmth and lightness. The illegal trade in Shahtoosh may lead to extinction of this species. The Tibetan Antelope is protected from commercial trade throughout its range, both nationally and internationally thereby prohibiting any commercial use or trade of any product in India and in the international market. Though globally banned the illegal trade of Shahtoosh driven by international demand has continued to be actively operational undercover in India. In order to bypass this trade ban, the traffickers mis-declare Shahtoosh consignments as Pashmina, Cashmere or conceal by mixed them in shipments between look-alike woolen products. In the present study the illegal Shahtoosh trade was analysed from 2009 to 2020. The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau has envisaged Operation Soft Gold to curb this. A total of 62 confirmed Shahtoosh cases were detected in India from 2009 to 2020. Most of them were detected at exit points and intended for international smuggling. The Indri Gandhi International airport New Delhi in India was the most preferred airport, while Air Cargo and Air Courier were often used by the traffickers. Our analysis shows that the illegal Shahtoosh trade network is going on between the Western Asian countries, Oman, China, Japan, Pakistan, UK, Spain, Hong Kong and Switzerland are either destination or transit countries for illegal Shahtoosh products