Illegal trade of butterflies

Smugglers come in all shapes and sizes, and they deal in all sorts of goods, so it is no surprise that there are those that are smuggling butterflies. But what is often a surprise is that this happens so openly.

Some two years ago, S Guruvayurappan saw mounted butterflies for sale in a Calicut supermarket. They had been imported from countries like Thailand and China. Out of curiosity, the south India project coordinator for the Wildlife Protection Society of India asked the shopkeeper where he might find rare Indian species. At first, the man was unwilling to talk, saying only that he took special orders. Guruvayurappan investigated and found that the supply came from a small hill station called Nadukani, on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. 

It wasn’t really an undercover operation, but when Guruvayurappan went there with friends, posing as a student who wanted to collect rare butterflies, several locals offered to sell. He identified a familiar pattern. Tourists, particularly from Southeast Asia, were coming to Nadukani to take butterflies, mostly to sell on the international market where the trade in butterflies, unlike in India, is legal.

“The people who sell the butterflies are mostly plantation workers. They do this for additional income as they are paid well for each butterfly they collect. Among the butterflies being smuggled out were the Southern Birdwing, Common Blue Bottle and the Malabar Tree Nymph which are all on the endangered list. It is almost impossible for Customs or forest officials to catch these foreigners as they simply wrap the butterflies in white paper or tracing paper, and place them in camera bags or other containers.”

Though he had documented evidence which he offered to authorities in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the latter denied the operation ever existed. In Kerala, though, five arrests were made. “The cases are still pending because the people pursuing it are demoralised by the magistrates. They don’t believe such a fuss should be made over one or two butterflies.”

The trouble is that one little insect here and another one there soon adds up to formidable numbers. The illegal wildlife trade in India is estimated at several thousand crore, the third most lucrative after arms and drugs, and it isn’t just tiger skins and penises. A major part of it includes the small things people don’t notice — such as butterflies and other insects — until they have vanished. As for catching the culprits, over the last 20 years or so, a handful of cases have been registered. They involve foreign collectors or scientists trying to smuggle butterflies and other insects. But the majority, as in the case of Nadukani, simply fly under the radar or are not treated with the seriousness they deserve.  

Butterflies have been called ‘nature’s jewels’, but they are far more than pretty little insects. They are indispensable to successful farming. Butterflies have immense economic value as pollinators — globally their value to agriculture per year is estimated at $200 billion, second only to the honeybee. And to fragile ecosystems, like the Himalayas where the summers are relatively short, the removal of a single species like the Kaisar-i-Hind could have a devastating chain effect. For instance, apple producers in the Himalayas complain of a decline in yield and quality due to the lack of insect pollinators, including butterflies and moths, in the flowering season.  

With its varied climatic zones, India is a haven of diversity, and this extends to butterfly species as well. According to Ashok Kumar, a former IAS officer who has worked for the Andhra Pradesh Wildlife Advisory board and is vice president of the Butterfly Conservation Society, the North East alone has about 900 species, compared to 56 in the whole of the UK. The sheer diversity of species is mind-boggling, he says. No wonder the ‘bio-pirates’ are dazzled by the wealth they confront, literally. 

Some species are worth astronomical sums. For instance, high-altitude butterflies like the Bhutan Glory, Kaisar-i-Hind, Pale Jezebel, Atlas Moth and the Ladakh Banded Apollo, fetch up to Rs 20,000 apiece in the international market. That is a staggering sum by the standards of the workers who do the actual collecting, and a reason why they are paid well for their labours. 

Today’s market for butterflies is a bit like the shark fin craze, everyone wants it because they can all afford it.  Earlier, only collectors bought butterflies but now it’s a business that’s diversified as it expands. In Southeast Asia, Kumar says they are used in greeting cards, paper weights, even jewellery. And in Europe and North America many people planning to start butterfly farms are always looking for exotic species. All this has put serious strains on many butterfly populations in the country.

Arjan Basu Roy, vice president of Naturemates, an NGO in Calcutta which does butterfly surveys in and around West Bengal, says the problem is that butterfly collection is not outlawed in other countries. While collection in India is clearly banned by the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, the global trade in butterflies is worth something like $200 million. Those unfamiliar with this concept need only check out websites like www.insectdesign.com to see the scale on which it happens.

During a recent survey around the Darjeeling area, Roy was amazed to find that most of the major species had almost disappeared. Perhaps one or two of each species were spotted. Ironically, it was on a visit to Japan that he spotted a Bhutan Glory that was up for sale. It had been collected in 1999. His inquiries turned up stocks of other Indian species, available since 2003.

The key to this operation is the local factor. “They form an essential link in the smuggling route, because after collection the butterflies are sent either to Nepal or Myanmar where Indian laws don’t apply. From there they can be transported out. Locals who cross the border on foot are never even questioned or searched so it’s almost impossible to detect,” says Roy.

Experts in the conservation business rue the fact that more attention isn’t paid to the depletion of insect populations, both through smuggling and environmental degradation. According to Tej Kumar, president of the Butterfly Conservation Society in Andhra, wildlife conservation in India has come to focus almost exclusively on the tiger. “More awareness is needed among customs and forest officials because that’s one major reason why insect smugglers get away — these officials are not able to identify when they are taking away rare or endangered species.” 

He also says the laws need to be looked at again. “We have a complicated system. The Wildlife Protection Act has four schedules under which different species are included. And it’s only if someone is found with one of these that action can be taken. Also, while some common species are included in the Act, certain species endemic to the Western Ghats, for instance, and thus more important, will not be included.” The question is, will everyone wake up to notice only after the butterflies are gone?  

The Indiana Jones of butterfly smuggling 

In 2006, a Japanese man in Los Angeles called Hisayoshi Kojima who described himself as the world’s most wanted butterfly smuggler was apprehended and sentenced to 21 months in prison. He was caught after an undercover operation that lasted nearly three years.

Officials began investigating Kojima in 2003 after an insect dealer in Texas told agents of his reputation within the trade as the world’s top smuggler of rare and protected butterflies. Investigators learned Kojima’s smuggling network spanned the globe. He routinely produced for sale endangered butterflies from the South Pacific, Caribbean and Spain, including one pair of Queen Alexandra’s birdwings, an endangered species that is the largest butterfly in the world.  Kojima sold the pair to an undercover agent for $8,500.

Special Agent Ed Newcomer, who led the three-year investigation, said that Kojima was able to produce butterflies for sale that are almost never seen in commercial trade, or even made available to university collections.  

Included in the list of rare butterflies Kojima offered for sale was the endangered Giant Swallowtail butterfly, Papilio homerus, the largest butterfly in the western hemisphere. The species is depicted on the $1,000 Jamaican banknote. 

Case histories1994 — Two German tourists called Heckar Hermann Henrich and Weigert Ludwig, who came to India as tourists were detained at the Indira Gandhi Airport as they were found with four cartons that contained nearly 45,000 insects, including butterflies. These were confiscated on the spot and sent to entomologists for identification.  

July 1996 — 1,773 insects and 1,268 butterflies were seized in Darjeeling. They were being smuggled out by Kawamura Shunchi, a Japanese tourist and his Indian accomplice Bhotto Singh Chepri. They were given one month imprisonment. On the same day, a local in Darjeeling was arrested with mounted butterflies.  

October 2001 — Two Russians — Victor Siniaev and Oleg Amosov — were arrested in Kanchenjunga in Sikkim for collecting over 2000 beetles, moths and butterflies. They claimed that they were scientists and didn’t know that it was a National park. The Russian consulate in Calcutta took up the issue and petitioned for their release. The Forest Department found in their possession a petrol generator, ultra violet bulbs, killing and collecting jars, chemicals, wires and nets.  

2008 — Two Czech nationals, Peter Svacha and Emil Kucera came to India on tourist visas and were apprehended in Singalila National Park in West Bengal with nearly 2,000 specimens of larvae and adult insects. They claimed they were from the Czech Academy of science. 

Svacha was fined Rs 20,000 and Kucera Rs 60,000. Meanwhile, the BBC reported that Kucera was running a website that offered to sell rare insects to collectors. The two men were given conditional bail and the incident caused great controversy as scientists, from India and abroad, filed numerous petitions demanding that the duo be released.— 

jayantsriram@expressbuzz.com

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पाचगणी, महाबळेश्वरपाठोपाठ आता ‘कास’ पठार संकटात!

वैशिष्टय़पूर्ण वनस्पती जगातून कायमच्या नामशेष होण्याचा धोका
अभिजित घोरपडे ,पुणे, २८ सप्टेंबर
पाचगणी आणि महाबळेश्वर पठारांवरील अनेक दुर्मिळ वनस्पती गेल्या वीस वर्षांत अर्निबध पर्यटनामुळे कायमच्या नामशेष झाल्यानंतर आता हेच लोण कास पठारापर्यंत पोहोचण्यास सुरुवात झाली आहे. त्यामुळे जगात केवळ कास पठारावरच आढळणाऱ्या चार प्रकारच्या वनस्पती, तसेच इतरही अतिशय दुर्मिळ वनस्पती आणि पठारांवरील अनोख्या जैवविविधतेच्या भवितव्याबाबत प्रश्नचिन्ह उभे राहिले आहे.
कासच्या वैशिष्टय़पूर्ण पुष्पपठाराला गेल्या काही वर्षांत अनेक धोक्यांचा सामना करावा लागत आहे. पर्यटकांची वाढती गर्दी, वाहनांची वर्दळ, बेशिस्तीमुळे किंवा अजाणतेपणे वनस्पतींचे होणारे नुकसान, तसेच कुतूहलापोटी उपटल्या जाणाऱ्या वनस्पती अशा अनेक समस्या उभ्या राहिल्या आहेत. हे पठार नैसर्गिकदृष्टय़ा अतिशय संवेदनशील आहे. पावसाळय़ात केवळ काही आठवडय़ांचे आयुष्य लाभलेल्या या वनस्पती गेल्या काही वर्षांमध्ये पावसातील चढउताराचा आणि अनियमित वेळापत्रकाचा परिणाम झेलत आहेत. त्यातच आता पर्यटकांच्या झुंडीच्या झुंडी, वाहनांची वर्दळ, त्यांची बेशिस्त आणि ‘विकासा’च्या नावाखाली होऊ घातलेल्या बदलांमुळे तेथील वनस्पतींवर नवे संकट येऊन ठेपले आहे.
वनस्पतितज्ज्ञ आणि सहय़ाद्रीतील वनस्पतिजगताचे गाढे अभ्यासक डॉ. मधुकर बाचुलकर, तसेच ‘क्रिएटिव्ह नेचर्स फ्रेंड्स’चे रोहन भाटे यांच्याशी चर्चा केली असता कास पठारावरील पुष्पसंपदेला असलेला धोका प्रकर्षांने जाणवला. महाराष्ट्रातील अनेक पठारांवरील वनस्पतिसंपदा अर्निबध वर्दळीमुळे नष्ट झाली आहे. पाचगणीचे विस्तीर्ण पठार अर्थात ‘टेबल लॅन्ड’ हे त्याचे उत्तम उदाहरण आहे. या पठारावर व आसपासच्या परिसरात गेल्या ३० ते ४० वर्षांमध्ये वनस्पतींच्या १२ नव्या प्रजाती आढळल्या. त्यात सिरोपिया नूरजहानी, सिरोपिया पंचगनांसिस, क्रायनम वूडरी अशा वैशिष्टय़पूर्ण पुष्पवनस्पतींचा समावेश होता. पण गेल्या दोन दशकांमध्ये परिस्थिती इतकी बदलली आहे, की आता या जाती तिथे नावालासुद्धा पाहायला मिळत नाहीत. त्यामुळे या जाती वनस्पतिजगतातून कायमच्या नष्ट झाल्या असल्याचेच चित्र आहे. हे घडण्यास अर्निबध व बेशिस्त पर्यटक हेच प्रमुख कारण ठरले आहे. हेच महाबळेश्वर येथेही पाहायला मिळाले आहे. शंभर वर्षांपूर्वी महाबळेश्वरच्या पठारांवर मुबलक आढळणारी ‘क्रायमन ब्रॅचिनिमा’ ही रानलीलीची जात अशाच कारणांमुळे नष्ट झाली. आता संपूर्ण परिसरात शोधूनही सापडत नाही. पाचगणी आणि महाबळेश्वर येथे न घेतलेली काळजी कास पठाराच्या बाबतीतही घेतली गेली नाही तर तिथेसुद्धा हाच धोका संभवतो. कासच्या पठाराचे वैशिष्टय़ म्हणजे तिथे आढळणाऱ्या वनस्पतींच्या ६० ते ७० प्रजाती स्थानिक व दुर्मिळ आहेत. त्यातल्या चार प्रजाती तर कासच्या पठाराशिवाय जगात इतरत्र कुठेही आढळत नाहीत. त्यात अ‍ॅपानोगेटन सातारेन्सिस (वायतुरा), अरिसेमा सहय़ाद्रीकम घाटीकम (छोटा सापकांदा), युलालिया श्रीरंगी व मेन्सेथिया वलदकम्पी (गवताच्या प्रजाती) यांचा समावेश आहे. त्यामुळेच कासचेसुद्धा पाचगणी किंवा महाबळेश्वर झाले तर यासारख्या वैशिष्टय़पूर्ण प्रजाती जगातून कायमच्या नष्ट होण्याचा धोका आहे. म्हणूनच कास पठारासाठी तातडीने संरक्षण व संवर्धन महत्त्वाचे ठरले आहे. तोपर्यंत शिस्तबद्ध, मर्यादित व पर्यावरणपूरक पर्यटन राबविण्याची आवश्यकता अभ्यासकांनी व्यक्त केली आहे. 

निसर्गातील बदलांचेही संकट
कासच्या पठाराला निसर्गातील बदलांचे संकट आधीच भेडसावत असल्याने आता मानवनिर्मित समस्यांच्या विळख्याची तीव्रता अधिक प्रमाणात जाणवण्याचा धोका आहे. पठारावरील या पुष्पवनस्पतींचे आयुष्य पावसाळय़ात केवळ काही आठवडय़ांइतकेच आहे. त्यामुळे पावसाचे प्रमाण कमी-जास्त होणे, त्याचे उशिराने आगमन होणे आणि त्याने दिलेली उघडीप या गोष्टींचा त्यांच्या आयुष्यावर विपरीत परिणाम होतो. या वनस्पती पावसाळा संपताना मरून जातात तेव्हा त्यांच्या बिया पठारावरच पडतात. या बियांची दूर अंतरावर पसरण्याची क्षमताच नसल्याने त्या पठारापुरत्याच मर्यादित राहतात. त्यामुळेच एखाद्या वर्षी पावसाने मोठी उघडीप दिल्यामुळे किंवा इतर काही कारणांमुळे या बिया रुजल्याच नाहीत, तर पुढच्या वर्षी त्या वनस्पती तिथे न उगवण्याचा धोका असतो. अलीकडच्या काळात पावसातील अनियमिततेचा धोका वाढल्यामुळे कासच्या पुष्पपठाराला निसर्गातील बदलांचे संकट सहन करावे लागत आहे, असे निरीक्षण डॉ. बाचुलकर यांनी नोंदवले आहे. या परिस्थितीत आता मानवामुळे उभे राहिलेले संकट सहन करणे या कास पठारासाठी अधिकच खडतर ठरणार आहे.

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Where have all the British botanists gone, just when we need them?

We are desperate for new crops, drugs and energy sources but plant science graduates have become an endangered species, says Professor Steve Jones. 

By Steve Jones 

The Botanic Garden in the University of Oxford. 

 U

Plant scientists have become an endangered species in Britain, says Steve Jones.

'I’d like to see them starving,/The so-called working class,/Their wages yearly halving,/Their women boiling grass”. Thus wrote Philip Larkin in a poem that can have no relevance to Britain today, for he was writing before the era of coalition politics. 

Boiled grass may, in fact, soon be on the menu, because of advances in a science which has revolutionised our lives and yet – at least when it comes to producing a new generation of practitioners – has almost vanished from the British scene. Botany has disappeared as an A-level subject, just 10 universities offer degrees in plant science (at least one is thinking of dropping it) and there are no more than 100 graduates each year. Most places have a grotesque imbalance between researchers using plants and using animals, humans included (a 500-to-one ratio in my own institution).

Yet plants are not just beautiful, diverse and easy to handle, but we depend upon them for food, for fuel, for drugs and (not to be forgotten) for aesthetic sensibility.
Why do students find the vegetable world so boring when without it we would perish? The United States (unlike Britain, where less than a third of our landscape is suitable for crops and we need crop-land twice the size of these islands to feed ourselves) now has enough acreage to grow all the food it might need, plus a bit over. In just 40 years, population growth, urbanisation and loss of soil mean that the amount of fertile land per head will drop by ten times. To guard against that, the Americans are pouring in billions to a plan to double maize yields in two decades. A quarter of all medicines are plant-based, or were discovered in that kingdom, and the need for sustainable fuel has led to the – unsustainable – use of food plants or oil palms to make alcohol-enhanced petrol. New crops, new drugs and new sources of energy are needed but the annual crop of British botany graduates is now so reduced as to make them an endangered species.
Ironically, the technical advances in DNA research that came from the Human Genome Project (and disappointed those who had hoped for a revolution in medicine) has transformed the study of plants. New genes for increased production (such as grass with enough sugar to make it palatable, and clovers that make far more nitrogen fertiliser than before) are emerging fast. Many of our crops, wheat included, are natural hybrids between wild species, and the hunt is on for ways to disrupt the inborn mechanisms that stop other potentially valuable mongrels from being made. Already, distantly related kinds are being persuaded to mate to generate varieties resistant to heat, salt, flooding, drought and to the other good things promised by global warming.
One escape from that problem is to use plants as fuel. Much of the biofuel market is driven by the economics of the madhouse, for subsidies make it profitable to burn crops that could be eaten. Elephant grass is a 15ft Asian giant that can grow on barren land and is four times better than maize at producing fuel. It is already being burned in British power stations, but almost everywhere just one strain is used. Expeditions to Japan and China have found wild varieties that might do the job even better. The plan is to double the plant’s yield and to have one kilowatt in every eight of Britain’s electricity generated from the crop in two decades.
In fact, all these projects are under way in one intellectual hot-house in west Wales. Here I must declare an interest, for I am on its advisory board, and have just returned from my annual visit. The University of Aberystwyth’s Institute of Biological Environmental and Rural Sciences is a world centre for the new plant science – but even there it is hard to attract school-leavers to study the subject and to find funds to pay for it.
In spite of the astonishing progress being made there and in other great research centres such as Norwich, Nottingham, Cambridge and Oxford, none of their work has more relevance for the future than does an agricultural adage from before science began: that, both for plants and for the people who study them, to eat the seed corn today will be to starve tomorrow.
Steve Jones is Professor of Genetics at University College London

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• Fifty Years of Science in India: Progress of Botany 
• One Hundred Years of Plant Pathology in India 
• Fungi of India 1989-2001 
• A bibliography of the botany of British India and Ceylon 
• Botany in India: History and Progress 
• Lowson's textbook of botany: Edition for India, Pakistan, and Ceylon 
• Chapters on the History of Botany in India