Buyer Beware, says a new post on the US Fish and Wildlife Service website, warning Americans travelling to China for the Olympics about buying wildlife products banned both in China and the United States.

Shop smart and check trade restrictions before buying, for many American citizens returning home have brought in banned ivory and jewellery, says the statement. While this may not mean much to the average person, it proves a point, one which has been consistently chasing Indian forests: the fact that wildlife crime and poaching is big, organised and international, most of it culminating in Asia, notably China; and it can be tackled best only by a multi-disciplinary agency. Though even countries like China have restrictions on many products, this hasn’t stopped the illegitimate market from charting new waters and deftly skirting transit at airports.

Case in point: the Yarsa Gumba, a caterpillar found in high sub-alpine Indian stretches. The curious name translates to “winter insect summer grass”. In winters, a parasitic fungus grows on the caterpillar. By the end of the cold season, the caterpillar is dead, and spores that grow triumphantly on the crown of the insect resemble summer grass. The spores are part of what is being wildly taken out of the country to create a miracle drug used in traditional Chinese medicine. The fact that the illegal poaching trade is international and ever-changing (and the reason other Chinese products are a threat to US law enforcers) is proved by this dead caterpillar. Till just recently, Yarsa Gumba was gathered only from Nepal, Tibet and Chinese provinces. But the demand and the long arms of the trade have now brought caterpillar-gathering to Indian mountains.

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