Ex-forest officer’s book sheds light on Kerala’s dark underbelly of wildlife trade and superstitions

A dimly lit store successful Kozhikode. Forest officers successful plain apparel hold extracurricular arsenic their informant signals with a speedy flick of a handkerchief, the motion that the “goods” are inside. Moments later, the squad bursts successful and catches the trader red-handed with what appears to beryllium a tiger skin, folded neatly wrong an aged trunk. But arsenic they unroll the hide, a rodent darts out, revealing the pelt’s agelong abandonment and a concealed the trafficker had hidden for years.

Gritty and tense scenes similar these capable erstwhile Deputy Conservator of Forests J.R. Ani’s caller publication Naagamanikyam, Gajamuthu, Vellimoonga: Vanam Kallakkadathinte Kanappurangal’ (Snake stone, elephant pearl, barn owl: the unseen broadside of wildlife smuggling), a first-hand chronicle of the secretive and often perilous satellite of wildlife commercialized enforcement successful Kerala.

From snake-stone hoaxes and ivory smuggling networks of Kerala to raids connected tiger pelt traders and poachers successful the Western Ghats, the seasoned officer, who besides served arsenic the Divisional Forest Officer of the Flying Squad, sheds uncommon airy connected real-life undercover operations conducted by the Forest section to curb the amerciable commercialized successful tiger skins and different wildlife products.

In 1 chapter, Mr. Ani details a tense cognition successful Kozhikode wherever his squad tracked down a uncommon tiger pelt being traded successful a metropolis workshop, lone to find that galore alleged ‘skins’ were really dyed cattle hides, painstakingly painted to deceive buyers. Another occurrence acceptable successful Silent Valley describes a high-risk ngo to retrieve a tiger fell from an equipped poacher, carried retired heavy wrong rain-soaked forests that lacked mobile connectivity.

Equally riveting are his accounts of ivory commercialized busts, from encounters with notorious poachers similar ‘Kezha’ Vasu and ‘Karadi’ Raghavan to the unravelling of intricate trafficking networks that stretched from Wayanad to Tamil Nadu.

Mr. Ani besides exposes the underbelly of wildlife-related superstition and fraud. He delves into however gullible buyers were duped into purchasing the ‘snake stones,’ ‘elephant pearls’ and ‘rice-pulling’ vessels that are fake relics marketed with pseudoscientific demonstrations. These scams, often operating nether the guise of accepted healing oregon occult power, became fronts for amerciable wildlife commercialized and fiscal exploitation.

He besides elaborates connected however fraudsters falsely assertion that animals specified arsenic barn owls, reddish soil boas and prima tortoises incorporate traces of iridium, which gives them magical oregon ‘money-attracting’ powers. Such superstitions person fuelled a multi million-dollar achromatic marketplace crossed India and abroad.

Innocent creatures are captured, tortured and sold for specified mythical “miracle powers”, the retired authoritative laments.