It’s the newness of the trade that is part of the problem: the Yarsa Gumba is not protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, simply because it hasn’t been threatened before. This is a challenge that can be comprehended only on an international level, and here in India, it is the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, formed last year, which is planning to take up the issue.

Bureau officials — who work with customs, the CBI and the IB — are working on advocating that the caterpillar be protected. TRAFFIC India, an international wildlife trade monitoring network, estimates that as much as 500 kilograms of the insect, at Rs 90,000 per kg, is leaving India through Dharchula in Pithoragarh district (towards Nepal and then to China) each year, mostly through illegal channels. This is a staggering number of caterpillars for a relatively new trade: around 3,500-3,800 caterpillars make one kilogram, all part of a fragile ecosystem found only in select reaches of the Garhwal-Kumaon Himalayas and Arunachal Pradesh. It also means that the unregulated, surreptitious trade (some regulated trade occurs in Uttarakhand) is making money, which will most probably be re-invested in more illegal trade.

But what is illegal trade? The reason the WCCB is good for the country is the fact that it is their mandate to scrutinise high-incentive crime networks and bring them under one umbrella. The bureau is now working with specialised police branches like the Special Operations Squad for quick, effective enforcement. A seizure made by the bureau, under a joint operation with the Uttarakhand Special Task Force on July 28, revealed a fact that was suspected for a long time: that high demand and high-value products go hand in hand. The seizure of one leopard skin in Vikasnagar in Uttarakhand was accompanied by a seizure of around 300 grams of heroin.

... contd.