Insect collectors feel the sting in India
Saturday, 1 November 2008
James Lamont, FT Syndication Service
NEW DELHI: A bagful of beetles can land a collector in big trouble in India.
A Czech scientist, facing a three-year jail sentence for illegal insect collecting, has jumped bail and fled the country. Arrested in June, Emil Kucera was going to have his case heard on appeal before a court in Darjeeling in north-east India next week.
India is one of the world's most bio-diverse countries, second only to Brazil for its range of flora and fauna. Environmentalists say smugglers are taking advantage of lax policing to export specimens - from tigers and bears to insects and butterflies - to countries such as Germany and Japan, where they fetch high prices.
Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network, estimates that the value of illegal wildlife trade runs into hundreds of millions of dollars. A rare butterfly commands a price of more than $1,000 on the international market.
"India is like a supermarket," said Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. "Over the years the police have caught Japanese, particularly, in the insect trade and Nigerians in the turtle trade. There have even been cases of people taking DNA skin samples."
Czech officials said last Thursday that Mr Kucera had notified them by e-mail that he had left the country. They said there was no extradition treaty between the Czech Republic and India.
"We were surprised [to hear of his sudden departure]. But we respected his decision as an individual," said Katerina Vovkova, the consul at the Czech embassy in New Delhi. "He got a second passport sent by his girlfriend. That's completely legal. There's no objection [in the Czech Republic] to have two or three passports."
Mr Kucera had said after leaving India that he feared the "Darjeeling authorities were not able to guarantee [his] right to a fair trial".
Ms Vovkova said Mr Kucera had become embroiled in a "frustrating" judicial process after he was found collecting beetles without a permit. His co-collector, Petr Svacha, received a lesser sentence of a Rs20,000 ($407, €315) fine. Mr Svacha, an entomologist at the Czech academy of science, is still in the capital awaiting the return of his passport so that he can travel home.
Ms Vovkova said the two scientists had been collecting beetles for academic purposes and insisted that they were not smugglers.
Their arrest had been criticised by some scientists. However, environmentalists say there is a fine line between collectors and people who make a lot of money out of the animal trade.
Another FT Syndication Service report by Amy Kazmin and James Lamont in New Delhi adds: Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, urged India to do more to promote democracy in its military-ruled neighbour Burma, as New Delhi steps up its engagement with the junta in the hope of securing much-needed energy supplies.
In a landmark speech Thursday in New Delhi, Mr Ban called on New Delhi to more actively support UN efforts to broker a dialogue between the military junta and Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize-winning democracy advocate who has spent 13 of the last 18 years under house arrest.
"India is a major regional and global player," Mr Ban said. "I urge you to continue to champion the causes of democracy, the rule of law and good government . . . We already lean on you for peace-keeping. I would also like to see even stronger efforts to peacefully resolve conflict. Myanmar might benefit from greater Indian involvement."
Following global condemnation of its violent crackdown last year on massive anti-government marches led by Buddhist monks, Burma's ruling junta grudgingly accepted efforts by a UN envoy to broker a fresh round of talks between the junta and Ms Suu Kyi.
But the talks have gone nowhere, given the generals' disinterest in anything short of Ms Suu Kyi's endorsement of the regime's controversial plans to hold elections in 2010 for a parliament that will have little real power. Meanwhile, the junta has kept up its persecution of its opponents, with human rights groups estimating about 2,000 dissidents are currently imprisoned.
In his speech, held in memory of Rajiv Gandhi, the slain former Indian prime minister, Mr Ban expressed frustration at the continuing detention of Ms Suu Kyi and other dissidents, and the failure to foster any credible, substantive dialogue between the military and pro-democracy opposition forces.
However, India is far more pre-occupied with stepping up its commercial and security engagement with Burma, as it seeks access to some of the country's vast supplies of natural gas, and help from the generals to crack down on rebel groups from its troubled north-east, including Assam. India's dealings with generals are also underpinned by a fundamental desire to counterbalance China's evident influence there.
India, which once provided Burmese pro-democracy forces with financial and moral support, is now working with the generals to develop big infrastructure projects in Burma, including a port and transport facility at Sittwe. New Delhi is also extending substantial credit to the military for projects such as power transmission lines and a hydro-electric power project.
Jairam Ramesh, India's minister of state for commerce and power, this month also inaugurated a new Indian-backed IT training centre in Rangoon, which is scheduled to train about 1,000 Burmese people a year in IT skills.
NEW DELHI: A bagful of beetles can land a collector in big trouble in India.
A Czech scientist, facing a three-year jail sentence for illegal insect collecting, has jumped bail and fled the country. Arrested in June, Emil Kucera was going to have his case heard on appeal before a court in Darjeeling in north-east India next week.
India is one of the world's most bio-diverse countries, second only to Brazil for its range of flora and fauna. Environmentalists say smugglers are taking advantage of lax policing to export specimens - from tigers and bears to insects and butterflies - to countries such as Germany and Japan, where they fetch high prices.
Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network, estimates that the value of illegal wildlife trade runs into hundreds of millions of dollars. A rare butterfly commands a price of more than $1,000 on the international market.
"India is like a supermarket," said Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. "Over the years the police have caught Japanese, particularly, in the insect trade and Nigerians in the turtle trade. There have even been cases of people taking DNA skin samples."
Czech officials said last Thursday that Mr Kucera had notified them by e-mail that he had left the country. They said there was no extradition treaty between the Czech Republic and India.
"We were surprised [to hear of his sudden departure]. But we respected his decision as an individual," said Katerina Vovkova, the consul at the Czech embassy in New Delhi. "He got a second passport sent by his girlfriend. That's completely legal. There's no objection [in the Czech Republic] to have two or three passports."
Mr Kucera had said after leaving India that he feared the "Darjeeling authorities were not able to guarantee [his] right to a fair trial".
Ms Vovkova said Mr Kucera had become embroiled in a "frustrating" judicial process after he was found collecting beetles without a permit. His co-collector, Petr Svacha, received a lesser sentence of a Rs20,000 ($407, €315) fine. Mr Svacha, an entomologist at the Czech academy of science, is still in the capital awaiting the return of his passport so that he can travel home.
Ms Vovkova said the two scientists had been collecting beetles for academic purposes and insisted that they were not smugglers.
Their arrest had been criticised by some scientists. However, environmentalists say there is a fine line between collectors and people who make a lot of money out of the animal trade.
Another FT Syndication Service report by Amy Kazmin and James Lamont in New Delhi adds: Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, urged India to do more to promote democracy in its military-ruled neighbour Burma, as New Delhi steps up its engagement with the junta in the hope of securing much-needed energy supplies.
In a landmark speech Thursday in New Delhi, Mr Ban called on New Delhi to more actively support UN efforts to broker a dialogue between the military junta and Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize-winning democracy advocate who has spent 13 of the last 18 years under house arrest.
"India is a major regional and global player," Mr Ban said. "I urge you to continue to champion the causes of democracy, the rule of law and good government . . . We already lean on you for peace-keeping. I would also like to see even stronger efforts to peacefully resolve conflict. Myanmar might benefit from greater Indian involvement."
Following global condemnation of its violent crackdown last year on massive anti-government marches led by Buddhist monks, Burma's ruling junta grudgingly accepted efforts by a UN envoy to broker a fresh round of talks between the junta and Ms Suu Kyi.
But the talks have gone nowhere, given the generals' disinterest in anything short of Ms Suu Kyi's endorsement of the regime's controversial plans to hold elections in 2010 for a parliament that will have little real power. Meanwhile, the junta has kept up its persecution of its opponents, with human rights groups estimating about 2,000 dissidents are currently imprisoned.
In his speech, held in memory of Rajiv Gandhi, the slain former Indian prime minister, Mr Ban expressed frustration at the continuing detention of Ms Suu Kyi and other dissidents, and the failure to foster any credible, substantive dialogue between the military and pro-democracy opposition forces.
However, India is far more pre-occupied with stepping up its commercial and security engagement with Burma, as it seeks access to some of the country's vast supplies of natural gas, and help from the generals to crack down on rebel groups from its troubled north-east, including Assam. India's dealings with generals are also underpinned by a fundamental desire to counterbalance China's evident influence there.
India, which once provided Burmese pro-democracy forces with financial and moral support, is now working with the generals to develop big infrastructure projects in Burma, including a port and transport facility at Sittwe. New Delhi is also extending substantial credit to the military for projects such as power transmission lines and a hydro-electric power project.
Jairam Ramesh, India's minister of state for commerce and power, this month also inaugurated a new Indian-backed IT training centre in Rangoon, which is scheduled to train about 1,000 Burmese people a year in IT skills.