During the last week of May this year, personnel from the Forest Cell of Mysuru district police, posing as customers, met one Subhash near Jaganmohan Palace in the city, who was offering to sell a tiger pelt.
Subhash, a native of Kerala, and his associates, Mohan and Nagaraju, both from Nelamangala near Bengaluru, were arrested and handed over to the jurisdictional Devaraja police station. But soon, on examination, the sleuths from the Forest Cell realised that that the tiger skin was fake.
Even as the fake tiger pelt seized by the police has been handed over to the Forest Department for forensic tests to find out which animal’s skin had been used, City Police Commissioner B. Dayananda said the demand for illegal wildlife derivatives, which are used for ostentatious display or superstition, has spawned a contraband industry.
Rajshekar, Sub Inspector of Police, Forest Cell, who was behind the seizure told The Hindu that the paint used for faking the tiger skin was not washing away even after use of chemicals. Besides, this was not a one-off seizure and there have been a series of them in the recent past.
Mr. Rajshekar also recalled that their pursuit for an original tiger skin in Pandavapura in 2013 had led them to a massive haul of 540 fake tiger pelts in Pakshirajapura in Hunsur, a Hakki Pikki settlement on the outskirts of Nagarhole.
Tribals, who also claimed to be masseurs, carry these fake tiger skins with them on their visits to foreign countries like Thailand and Hong Kong and palm them off as original, officials claimed. The fake tiger pelts seized in Pakshirajapura included the ones that had been seized by the authorities at Kempegowda International Airport Limited earlier after collecting a penalty. “The airport authorities had seized them, but handed them back after collecting penalty”, the police official said.
Fake wildlife derivatives that had flooded the market also include tusks, made out of plaster of paris, and camel teeth, which are palmed off as tiger teeth.
The fake tiger skin seized in Pakshirajapura had been made out of hides of male calves, Mr. Rajashekar said adding that most fake tiger pelts are made out of hides of dogs, river otter or male calves. However, the emergence of the contraband industry has underlined the need for heightening vigil on the trade of original wildlife derivatives, whose possession and trade is banned by law. The market for such contraband industry is considered to be second only to narcotics in international trade.
