JOIN USIllegal wildlife articles like leopard skin, elephant tusks, rhinoceros horns were incinerated in the Delhi Zoo on Sunday.
The products were seized over a period of time by the forest and wildlife departments, wildlife crime control bureau, the police and customs.
“Some of the articles destroyed today were from the Zoo that were lying here for a long time,” said a senior zoo official.
Before the articles were burnt, these were on public display for a while. Prakash Javadekar, Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, was present at the event.
The articles burnt were five tiger skins, six leopard skins, 32 shahtoosh shawls and two elephant tusks, among others.
“The items destroyed also included over 13,000 other mammal skins, over 31,500 reptile skins, broken tiger teeth and three rhinoceros horns,” said the senior zoo official.
The list also had 42,544 animal articles in it. These products have been obtained by killing tigers, elephants, leopards, lions, snakes, deer, mongoose and owls, a zoo official added.
Emphasising that this symbolic gesture shows the government would not entertain activities like poaching and illegal trading of wildlife articles, Javadekar said, “This is to ensure the co-existence of flora, fauna and human beings. Hunting was a popular sport 200 years ago. But this led to species becoming endangered.”
The incineration was done in the purview of public to send out a strong message that poaching or other related illegal activities would not be tolerated by the government, the Minister added before burning the articles at the renovated incinerator of the zoo.
Destroying the products was to ensure that these would not be misused later as “one position leads to another” – even one rhino horn can fetch a huge amount of money, he said.
Javadekar added that money generated from illegal trafficking and trade of animals and poaching always found a way into illegal activities.
The Delhi Zoo burns some wildlife articles in its premises from time to time. On Sunday’s event, representatives of zoo outreach programmes from other countries were also present.
These are participants in a conference going on in the premises since October 30.