Insect Thieves

mazha

I wonder how many of these people make use of the rich info on Indiamike?

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp...+%28F%29&sid=1

* The Eastern Himalayas and Western Ghats are prime hunting grounds for smugglers of rare Indian butterflies and beetles
* They're in demand internationally for private collections, butterfly parks, traditional medicine, and also to be encased into jewellery
* Among the sought-after species are: Pale Jezebel, Banded Apollo and Kaiser-I-Hind butterflies; Rhinoceros, Long-horned and Jewel beetles

Over the past few years alone, French and Russian nationals have been caught in Sikkim with butterflies and beetles, Czech nationals in Leh with butterflies and Japanese in north Bengal with beetles. But many, many more get away scot free.

PeakXV

Those Egyptians sure started a long lasting trend with that scarab art thing of theirs.

.... yeah I'm sure a small pack of nefarious sorts use this site, as much as they read newspapers & watch TV reports to get that added advantage & info edge.

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We shall not cease from exploration and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started ...and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot

Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

steven_ber

I heard that both Banded Apollo and Kaiser-I-Hind butterflies have been found in Hajipur (bihar), you have to go deep into the slums in the north west part of town just before midnight, then just tell the locals that you're good friends with their landlords, and the locals will be only too happy to help.

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RAC & Waitlists explained.

PeakXV

.... not to mention the ultra ultra rare Paisley-Winged Swallowtail that seems to exist these days only in small pockets near the Kashmir LoC.

Haylo

I heard there have been recent sightings in the Arravali Range of the Lesser Peacock Incontinentiata species.

mazha

Not sure about the small nefarious pack, when you put together the organ seekers, paedophiles, drug runners, bio-pirates of all shades, GM seed sellers, pharma folks looking for cheap-human-testing, sellers of contaminated ships, arms lobbyists, human traffickers, destitution tourists...

We only hear from the India-loving folks, the others just read and go do their nefarious things. Nothing much an be done about it, I guess. Though sometimes I wonder whether the people knowledgeable about ecologically sensitive areas should give away their information that readily....

BTW, the Outlook article misses the larger context of the current high interest in butterflies, moths and other such smaller animals. Here
is more for those who are interested, this is a major movement:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bionics..._biomimetic s

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate...d=rss_innovate

singsub

and i thought the smuggling of living creatures was limited to tigers, leopards, elephants, rhinos and such like...