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While Gandhi says the police is dragging its feet on the case, officers of the force said they have “instructions” not to take action against the owner, curiously terming it as a “VIP case”.
Gandhi’s NGO People for Animals (PFA) had been alerted last month that ‘The Petshop’ — located in the basement of Greenview Apartments in New Mangalpuri — sold endangered Macaws, turtles and lizards. The PFA spoke to the police and accompanied a team on May 20 for the raid.
Gandhi said several species covered under the 1972 Wildlife Protection Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) were found in the shop and were photographed. Subsequently, a joint report (in possession of Newsline) prepared by Wildlife Inspector R R Meena and Mehrauli police station Sub Inspector A K Singh detailed that five American red-eared sliders (turtles), corn snakes and candy canes (snakes) had been found on the shop’s shelves. The report mentions the owner as one Jayesh Mathur of Dwarka.
Three weeks later, when Newsline visited the raided establishment, it appeared to be business as usual. Present at that time in the shop was one Dhirendra Swarup, who flaunted a pair of blue and golden Macaws to this correspondent. “This pair is worth Rs 1.8 lakh,” Swarup said. However, other protected species such as the snakes and turtles — photographed during the raid — were missing from the shelves. Trade in foreign birds is restricted by the CITES.
But nothing happened after the raid. Maneka Gandhi said, “A few days ago, we got a call from a district forest officer who asked us to back off, saying this was a VIP case and that no action would be taken against the owner.”
On the other hand, senior officers who would not be named, said they were troubled over this “VIP petshop” but would say no more. Delhi Police’s spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said, “No animal was confiscated during the raid. We spoke to the wildlife inspector who said the animals found were not covered under the Wildlife Protection Act.”
Maneka Gandhi said the matter was then taken to the Wildlife Crime Branch in the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Gandhi said, “Its head M B Lall has said the Ministry is examining the case.” But when Newsline contacted Lall, he said, “I have no idea about this. This case comes under the jurisdiction of the Delhi Wildlife Department.”
Gandhi said when the PFA confronted the government to check if the owner had the necessary papers to do business in these animals, they were shown a “few baseless permits”. These papers include a letter from a firm in Singapore permitting the export of 12 turtles as personal pets flown in on March 9, 2005.
In the same bunch was another interesting letter (dated April 11, 2005) from the Animal Quarantine Service, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying in Kapashera. This letter said the department had no objection to the import of “65 reptiles” from Singapore.
Gandhi said, “The permission to import from Singapore was for 12 turtles, but the Quarantine service in India okayed 65. On top of this, a permission from Singapore doesn’t entitle anyone to bring in animals without India’s permission.”
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it was wrong on the seller's part on selling turtles but it would be better if it is inquired whether the turtles were captured from wild or were captive bred india shold allow sale of captive bred turtles instead of the species getting in danger, sellers would initiate cptive breeding at a larger scale and this way we would get more turtles around us however only varieties like red-eared sliders and painted turtles must be allowed those which are small enough to be kept at home the large or medium species are a necessary part of ecosystem.