Wildlife crime thrives in least forested Punjab

Punjab, one of India’s least forested States, is challenging the perception that wildlife crimes are confined to dense jungles and protected areas.

A new study has identified emerging wildlife crime hotspots in the agrarian State, whose forest cover is less than 3.6% of its geographical area of 50,362 sqkm. The findings underline how illegal hunting, trafficking, and trade networks adapt to a human-dominated landscape by exploiting gaps in monitoring and enforcement.

Tarn Taran-based citizen scientist Navdeep Sood and Rohan Kumar of Lovely Professional University in Phagwara are the authors of the study, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Threatened Taxa.

Their study documents 32 incidents of wildlife crime in Punjab between 2019 and 2024, affecting thousands of animals, many endangered. Apart from wild boars, leopards, tigers, sambars, freshwater turtles, and Tibetan antelopes, the trafficked animals include marine species.

The researchers warn that these incidents, based on reported wildlife crimes, represent the tip of the iceberg. The researchers said wildlife crime in Punjab is not randomly distributed but highly concentrated. Using spatial analysis, they found that 1% of the State’s area — roughly 509 sqkm — accounts for extreme-intensity crime hotspots, while nearly 30% falls in low-to-moderate intensity zones.

An analysis of the recorded incidents revealed that wildlife crimes were concentrated in the Shivalik foothills and within the districts of Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Pathankot, Rupnagar, SAS Nagar, and Tarn Taran.

Bushmeat trade

The study identified wild boar as the most frequently targeted species, often linked to bushmeat trade and illegal transport networks. In one case, 127 live and dead individuals were seized.

The seizure of 201 shahtoosh shawls during the study period suggested the killing of hundreds of Tibetan antelopes, exposing connections to international trafficking chains. The Tibetan antelope is found in the Qinghai and Xinjiang regions of China and the Ladakh and Karakoram regions of India.

Similarly, the presence of marine products in a landlocked State such as Punjab signalled long-distance smuggling networks. The researchers noted that transit hubs, including Amritsar and (border point) Attari, are increasingly being flagged as critical nodes in illegal wildlife trade routes.

According to the study, crime methods used range from nets, clutch-wire snares and metal traps to firearms and trained dogs, pointing to a mix of opportunistic poaching and organised crime. It also noted the recovery of wildlife derivatives like tiger skins, bear bile, coral, and lizard oil, indicating sophisticated supply chains that extend far beyond Punjab.

The researchers suggested targeted enforcement, better monitoring, and stronger inter-agency coordination to check wildlife crimes in the northern Indian State bordering Pakistan.