What is next after zebras?

Busting the dens of wildlife traffickers and rescue of endangered animals and birds is now common news in the country. Over the last couple of decades, various types of animal and bird species have been rescued from smugglers' captivity. They include rare turtles, baby alligators, wild cats and birds. Both smuggling-in and smuggling-out comprise the illicit trade. In spite of raids on traffickers' dens and their arrests, the trade continues to thrive in the country. But the recent rescue of nine zebras from a temporary cattle shed at a bordering village in Jashore district defies credulity. Law enforcers raided the venue on a tip-off. Four persons were arrested. They included the cattle shed owner. The other three were suspected of aiding the smugglers. The local police detectives said the nine zebras, out of total 10, were being smuggled to India after they were smuggled from Africa into Dhaka. One died on the way.

Local forest department officials later took the zebras into their care. The animals are now roaming free in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park in Gazipur.

The incident of rescuing the zebras, worth Tk 10 million, points to the extent the audacity and daring of the traffickers have reached. The formidably organised and powerful racketeers involved in poaching African elephants and smuggling out the animals' tusks remain largely out of law's dragnet. Elephant tusks are used for making expensive ivory ornaments. A syndicate involved in killing Sundarbans' tigers in Bangladesh and smuggling out the animals' body parts for use as stimulants has yet to be completely wiped out. Given the lax monitoring and surveillance, the wildlife traffickers may have chosen Bangladesh as an ideal spot. In the smuggling of the zebras from Dhaka via Jashore to a bordering country, Bangladesh was evidently being used as a transit.

Ekram Hassan Beg

Motijheel, Dhaka