KATHMANDU — In February this year, Indian media reported the rising number of cases involving tiger bone glue — an illicit sap-like substance made by pressure-cooking tiger bones and sold illegally in China, Vietnam and other countries across Southeast Asia as a supposed remedy for muscle-and-bone ailments and as an aphrodisiac.

Following the publication of the reports, in next-door Nepal, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CIB) of Nepal Police alerted the customs and police officials at key transit points, urging vigilance for suspicious cargo resembling the glue-like substance.

While such information coming from different sources outside of Nepal helps the country’s law enforcement fight emerging threats, weak legislation and overlapping jurisdictions at home hinder effective response and action, stakeholders say.

“The modus operandi of wildlife crime is constantly evolving,” says superintendent of police Sudhir Raj Shahi of the CIB, a wing under Nepal Police dedicated to investigating organized crime. “As Nepal is a crucial transit country for smugglers, we remain highly alert to emerging trends abroad, especially in neighboring India.”

At the heart of the cross-border collaboration against illegal wildlife trade between Nepal and its neighbors is the real-time information sharing mechanism between wildlife crime enforcement agencies such as the Wildlife Crime Control Bureaus (WCCBs) in Nepal and in India and the South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN), headquartered in Kathmandu.

Law enforcement officials in Nepal receive intelligence from counterparts in India, Bhutan and Sri Lanka, which has led to the bust of major cross-border wildlife trade rackets in the past. “We hold regular meetings where we analyze the latest trends in wildlife crime. Our priority is not just alerting frontline officers at customs and border checkpoints but also raising awareness in major entry and exit routes,” Shahi explains.

Shahi tells Mongabay that they recently received intelligence from India’s WCCB indicating that smugglers make beads from elephant skin to facilitate its cross-border trade. Additionally, they have learned that poachers are increasingly targeting leopards, particularly in parts of India and Sri Lanka, to extract and smuggle their paws.

Information and intelligence sharing has not only helped track emerging threats but also exposed major rackets. Shahi said that, in 2014, Nepal successfully apprehended members of a nomadic group from Rajasthan, India, allegedly responsible for poaching tigers and trafficking their parts across Southeast Asian countries. “By compiling information received from various countries, including Nepal, Bhutan and China, we were able to uncover the key networks driving the illicit trade of wildlife parts,” adds Shahi.

But even with so much information coming in from abroad from various formal and informal sources, sharing of intelligence and coordinating inter-departmental action hasn’t been easy.

Most cases of wildlife crime, particularly those related to seizure of parts, come through Nepal Police, the biggest law enforcement agency in the country. However, tackling wildlife related crimes is still not a priority as, according to law, they need to hand over suspects to either the local forest or national park office for prosecution.

Pradeep Bhattarai, senior environment officer at SAWEN, says, “Many police personnel struggle to differentiate between legal and illegal wildlife products. Additionally, the district wildlife crime control units, which are mandated to tackle these crimes at the local level, lack dedicated workforce and expertise, making enforcement even weaker.”

Similar is the case with the Armed Police Force (APF), the country’s paramilitary security force guarding its frontiers. Prasanna Yonzon, founding member and CEO of Wildlife Conservation Nepal (WCN), an NGO working on illegal wildlife trade, says he believes enforcement shortcomings allow perpetrators to go unpunished. “The APF, which has traditionally focused on fighting illegal timber trade, doesn’t have legal jurisdiction to handle wildlife-related crimes. They must hand over suspects and seized materials to forest offices, leading to delays and, often, lack of thorough investigation,” Yonzon says.

While national park rangers are relatively well-versed in prosecution, their counterparts in provincial division forest offices and district wildlife crime control units, who lack expertise and dedicated human resources to deal with the wildlife related crimes, have stymied these efforts.

“The lack of information-sharing between these agencies severely hampers efforts to dismantle trafficking networks,” says Shahi.

For example, on June 28, 2022, police arrested a Korean national at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu with 716 grams (25.25 ounces) of musk pod. He was initially handed over to the CIB, which later transferred the case to the forest office.

Although existing laws allow for a prison sentence of up to 15 years and a significant fine for such offenses, the forest office fined him 500,000 rupees (approximately $3,630) and released him.

There was no further follow-up in the investigation to look at international networks, making it difficult to trace and dismantle the criminal networks involved. “When we make any arrest related to wildlife crimes, we hand them over to the forest authorities. We generally do not have much information on how the investigation proceeds afterward,” says Shahi.

While Nepal sees sporadic incidents of rhino poaching for its horns and illegal hunting of musk deer and elephants, the smuggling of tiger parts remains particularly concerning. With over 5,000 wild tigers estimated to be living in South Asia, poaching and illegal trade is a persisting challenge in the region.

The challenge of fighting against poaching is compounded by the open border regime between Nepal and India, along with cross-country kinship and cultural ties. This facilitates easy sharing of information among criminal networks and poachers active in either country who can choose to cross the border when they realize they are under police surveillance.

Officials report some progress, however limited, in training law enforcement to fight wildlife crime. But such training rarely focuses on inter-agency coordination and cooperation.

Devendra Subedi, former additional inspector general of Nepal Police, who was awarded with Abraham Conservation Award in 2007 for his active initiation in tackling wildlife related crimes by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), says that Nepal Police has started dedicated efforts to curb wildlife crime after the Maoist conflict formally came to an end in 2006.

Similarly, the CIB now has a dedicated department to tackle wildlife crimes, and the Armed Police Force has also been training its personnel to address these offenses.

The proactive approach taken by the law enforcement is evident from the number of arrests made in connection with wildlife-related crimes over the past few years.

During the fiscal year (FY) 2019-20, Nepal Police arrested 120 individuals, including 47 apprehended by the CIB, one of whom was a foreign national. In FY 2020-21, police arrested 172 individuals for various wildlife crimes, followed by 136 arrests, including one foreigner, in FY 2021-22. In FY 2022-23, police again apprehended 136 individuals, and 63 in FY 2023-24. In just the first seven months of FY 2024-25, police have already arrested 13 individuals, including one found in possession of a tiger hide.

Hemanta Malla, former deputy inspector general of Nepal Police, an expert in wildlife crime investigations, stresses the need for improved training and crime scene documentation in poaching cases. “While law enforcement officials have begun receiving training, the effectiveness of their work in curbing wildlife crime continues to remain limited. We need more targeted and coordinated efforts,” he says.

Progress is also being made on the international front to further optimize information sharing mechanisms. In India, Wasim Akram, director of sustainability and special projects at the conservation NGO Wildlife SOS, says international collaboration is needed at all levels. “We are enhancing collaboration at various levels — through enforcement agencies, border police, security forces and customs — to combat these crimes. Bilateral meetings between Nepal and India allow for the exchange of intelligence and best practices,” he says.

“As part of the efforts, both the countries are also preparing to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for law enforcement agencies from both countries to conduct joint patrols against poachers,” says Krishna Prasad Acharya, secretary general of SAWEN.

Meanwhile, officials in Nepal continue to monitor media reports and talk to counterparts in neighboring countries to prepare themselves for potential threats. The tiger bone glue is yet to be recovered in Nepal.

Banner Image: In 2017, Nepal incinerated seized wildlife parts including tiger skins and rhino horns. Image courtesy of ZSL.

Kosh Raj Koirala is a journalist based in Kathmandu, Nepal.

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