WHAT IS 'SIT' ?

STOP ILLEGAL TRADE (SIT), is very important and vital activity of WNE - India. We launched this program back in the year 2022, to stop Illegal Hunting and Trading of Wildlife which is one of the most disgusting practices that massively destroying the balance of our ecology. In this 21st century, the condition of the forest is so fragile that it is almost impossible for the wildlife to sustain properly in it. Now the pressure of illegal trading and poaching create a situation like out of the frying pan, into the fire for them. As per our survey and other leading governmental and non-governmental agencies survey reports, it is very hard to find any species which is not poached or smuggled for money or bush meat, which is definitely an alarming news. Under our activity 'SIT' we intervene in multiple areas to ensure the success of the work.

Pangolin Scale collected from a Traditional Hunter

Top: dead Wild Animals Found from Illegal Hunters at Panskura Railway Station (West Bengal); Middle Left: Indian Pangolin Rescued from Ahmednagar (Maharashtra); Middle Right: Our Ground Team who are Restricting the Illegal Hunters from Hunting with Forest and Police Departmental Staffs. Bottom Left: Hunters carrying Fishing Cat and Jungle Cat in open road of Deulti, Howrah (West Bengal); Bottom Right: Our Ground Team Convincing the Hunters to Return Back without Executing the Hunting

WHAT IS ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADING

Illegal wildlife trading refers to anything that are derived from non-domesticated animals and plants usually extracted illegally from their natural environment or raised under controlled conditions. It can involve the trade (illegally) of living or dead individuals, tissues such as skins, bones or meat, or other products. Illegal wildlife trade is widespread and constitutes one of the major illegal economic activities, comparable to the trafficking of drugs and weapons. Wildlife trade creates a serious conservation in any habitat and has a negative effect on the viability of many wildlife populations and is one of the major threats to the survival of any species.

Porcupine Quill Collected from a Local Hunter

HOW THE ILLEGAL TRADE MARKET FUNCTIONING

As per the report of GEF (Global Environment Facility) each year the value of illegal trade has been estimated at between $7 to #23 billion per year which shows how big the market is.

The Illegal trade market is not a one-way traffic. There is a proper supply demand chain just like any other legal markets and the market always changes time to time, sometimes as per the supply sometime as per the demand.

The people in many countries are accustomed to a lifestyle which increase the demand of the wildlife in the form of meat, leather goods, medicinal ingredients, textiles, timbers and even many superstition beliefs. This creates a huge demand for the illegal trading of the wildlife. On the other hand, poor, marginalized people, who live near to forest areas, are fighting with extreme poverty, and looking for any sort of income from anything that can help them to complete their family necessity, can easily be tempted to do the illegal hunting/poaching of wildlife. As they are very familiar with the forest lands and its landscapes. They become either a good tracker for the outside poachers or those forest dwellers are become hunters. and with a financial support of a little amount of the huge market become an easy supply chain.

And this entire supply demand chain is stabilized by the traders and the linkmen. The role of the traders and the linkmen are the most vital one as they are actually controlling the entire market by controlling both supply and demand of the products.

Major Constraints in Mitigation

There are many laws to protect the wildlife but in reality, the execution of those laws is very poor in in terms of outcome. Most of the laws are weak with light sentences which allows the criminals to execute the work again and again. As they do not have much fear of the laws.
There are a very lack of education/knowledge regarding the wildlife protection laws among the forest dwellers, which helps the traders and linkmen to execute their work very easily. In many cases, the tribal hunter from the Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal area a have no idea of these laws and they have a very little idea of what is farming and what is wildlife.
Education system is very orthodox, where the importance of the environment, ecology and wildlife do not get proper priority to flourish. Even the teachers have little idea on the same.
Corruption is another huge constraint for this as many officials, staffs are also getting involve in this kind of activity which creates huge trouble in the mitigation work.
Economical background of the hunters are also plays a vital role in this. The forest dwellers are coming from very poor family which leads them to execute this kind of works for some cash as they have no proper livelihood apart from agriculture and forest procurement moreover the do not get properly paid for their crops too.
Identifying the traders/linkmen is a very difficult thing to do, as they have no background of criminal activities. they come to visit the forest as a nature/adventure lover and doing this kind of illegal activities.
There is a very lack of communication and network inside the forest adjacent villagers and forest officials, which create huge gap in communication, and it helps the traders/linkmen to execute their work hazard freely.

Seized Weapons and Animals from Hunters

Seized Weapons from Hunters

IMPACTS

Snake Rescued from the Snake Charmers during the Nag Panchami in Madhya Pradesh

Imbalance Biodiversity

Overexploitation of a specific species always creates an imbalance in the biodiversity, and it causes entire collapse in the ecosystem in the future.

Invasive Species

Sometimes, traders intentionally introduced various invasive species in some forest areas for their own purpose. This directly destroying the balance of nature.

Killing of Non-Target Species

During the time of poaching, many times the hunters also kill the non-target species too. This occurs for the bush meat most of the time.

Alternative Livelihood

Since for the forest dwellers no such proper source of revenues, many of them are taking this hunting as there alternative livelihood.

WHAT WNE'S DOING

Our Team Involving in Disengaging of Snares from the Forest Lands Regularly

Anti Snare Walk in Forest Lands

We organize regular anti snare walk inside the forest area and disengage it. Regular walk creates genuine awareness and fear among the villagers and the case of snaring automatically decreases in the surroundings. The number of snare or trap we found currently are much fewer than before.

Enforcing Law

We have also be directly involved in helping the forest and police department to identify and capture the culprits. Our specially trained team, meet the illegal traders and poachers as a decoy to catch them red handed. We have organized many cases so far. out of which most of them are successful.

Our Team is Monitoring the Forest Lands for any Illegal Activities such as Forest Destruction or Wildlife Crimes.

Educating the Youth

Youths are the future of this country. It is mandatory to educate them about this. Without having a basic knowledge on environmental and biodiversity, they shall not understand the importance of these species around us. Only an educated youth, can break the supply demand chain and diminish the Illegal Wildlife Trade.

Networking

We are building a strong network in our working area to get regular basis of information related to wildlife trade and poaching. This network involves, villagers, Forest, Railways and Police Departments. Our network is technically well equipped and ready for any action in no-time. This networking turned out to be very successful so far.

Six Hunters were Detained by Us and Handed to RPF and Forest Departmental Staffs in West Bengal, India

Research & Development

There is a huge information gap between us and those who are involved in the Illegal Wildlife Trade Markets. So, apart from other activities we have engaged an expertise team who are collecting more information on this and working on identifying the traders and linkmen. They are also keeping a strong check on the supply and demand chain of the market.

Awareness Programs

We do organize awareness programs for the forest adjacent villagers to spread the awareness on the importance of wildlife conservation and ensure they do have a proper knowledge of Wildlife Trafficking and its consequences under the Laws. Apart from that we also organize programs to share information of these kind of activities with the forest, railways and police departments.

Conciliate the Hunters

Our aim is to change the poor villagers who are engaged in hunting to conservationists from Hunters. Since they know the species most in its habitat due to their past experiences during hunting, they can help us in a lot of ways in the conservation works with their knowledge of species behavior. Moreover they can provide leads of traders.