PIB TrackerA gecko and a leopard share Schedule I, and a forest officer takes the case
Six DRI operations in ten days recovered leopard pelts, tortoises, geckos, pangolin scales and tiger bones. Nothing is valued in rupees; the Schedule listing alone makes each an offence.
What happened
- DRI ran six operations in ten days and seized two leopard pelts, 180 live Indian Star Tortoises, 12 live Tokay Geckos, around 24 kg of pangolin scales and 500 grams of tiger bones; thirteen persons were arrested.
- On 07.09.2026 one leopard pelt was recovered at Jeypore, Koraput district, Odisha, and the pelt and the apprehended person were handed to the State Forest Department, Koraput for legal action under the Act.
- The same day 180 live Indian Star Tortoises in six cloth covers were found near Gandhinagar, Bengaluru; the WCCB identified the species as Geochelone Elegan, listed under Schedule I.
- A Bolero truck in Ri-Bhoi district, Meghalaya heading to Mawhati carried 14.68 kg of dried pangolin scales, handed to the Range Forest Officer, Nongpoh; on 05-06.09.2026 four persons at Sidhi, Madhya Pradesh went to the Forest Department, Sidhi with one leopard skin.
- On 05.09.2026 12 live Tokay Geckos and two persons at Keokhali, Assam went to the Range Forest Officer, Biswanath Wildlife Division; on 28.08.2026 three persons in Karbi Anglong with 9 kg of scales and 0.5 kg of tiger bone went to the Forest Range Officer, Bokolia.
For Prelims
- Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: the statute under which all six seizures were made; Schedule I is the listing the release states for the leopard, the Indian Star Tortoise, the pangolin and the Tokay Gecko.
- Indian Star Tortoise: identified by the WCCB as Geochelone Elegan and listed under Schedule I; 180 live specimens were recovered in six cloth covers at Bengaluru.
- Pangolin: Schedule I and CITES Appendix I; 14.68 kg of scales were taken in Ri-Bhoi and about 9 kg in Karbi Anglong, around 24 kg in all.
- Tokay Gecko: Schedule I and CITES Appendix II; 12 live geckos were recovered from two persons at Keokhali, Assam.
- Leopard: Schedule I, with trade, sale, purchase, possession or transportation of pelts or parts prohibited; two pelts were taken, at Koraput and at Sidhi.
- Tiger bone: about 0.5 kg set with skull and teeth, seized in Karbi Anglong under the Act; the release states no Schedule for it.
- Directorate of Revenue Intelligence: the seizing agency, under the Ministry of Finance; six operations, thirteen arrests, ten days.
- Receiving authorities: State Forest Department, Koraput; Range Forest Officer, Nongpoh; Forest Department, Sidhi; Range Forest Officer, Biswanath Wildlife Division; Forest Range Officer, Bokolia.
For UPSC: The cleanest current illustration of how wildlife law is built in India: the offence is constituted by a species' placement in a Schedule, not by the value or the volume of what is seized, which is why twelve geckos and a leopard pelt sit at the same statutory level and why no rupee figure appears anywhere. Use it on wildlife protection and the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and on the division of enforcement labour by which a Central revenue-intelligence agency seizes and a State forest officer investigates and prosecutes. It also supplies the CITES layer, which the release applies to only two of the five species.
What it is NOT: No rupee value is put on any of the six seizures, and no prosecution, adjudication or conviction is recorded: the cases stop at handover for further action, with no section of the Act, case number or court named. No destination country or buyer is identified for any consignment, no population or conservation-status figure is given for any of the five species, and no earlier seizure data is offered for comparison.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.14 · GS2.9 · Linkage L2
Anchor
Indian wildlife law does not price what it protects. A leopard pelt, twelve geckos and 180 tortoises were taken under the same statute in the same ten days, and the release attaches no value to any of them, because the offence is constituted by the species' place in a Schedule and by nothing else.
Substantiation (data)
Six operations from 28.08.2026 to 07.09.2026: one leopard pelt at Koraput, 180 live Indian Star Tortoises at Bengaluru, 14.68 kg of pangolin scales in Ri-Bhoi, one leopard skin at Sidhi, twelve live Tokay Geckos at Keokhali, and about 9 kg of scales with 0.5 kg of tiger bone at Karbi Anglong. Thirteen arrests in all.
Exemplification
The Meghalaya case carries the whole chain in one file. A Bolero truck heading for Mawhati is stopped by a Central revenue-intelligence agency; the contraband is 14.68 kg of scales from a Schedule I species also in CITES Appendix I; and the scales, the vehicle and the man then pass to the Range Forest Officer, Nongpoh, who runs the case.
Comparison
Set Bengaluru against Keokhali. Bengaluru produced the largest count in the whole operation, 180 live tortoises, and is the only case the release actually calls an arrest, yet it names no forest authority to receive it. Keokhali produced twelve geckos and names its receiving officer to the division, the Range Forest Officer, Biswanath Wildlife Division.
Problematisation
The handover is where the record stops. Five cases pass to forest officers for further action and nothing follows in the release: no section of the Act, no case number, no outcome. The seizing agency publishes its own totals while the prosecuting authority publishes none, and the stated thirteen arrests do not reconcile with the twelve persons the six accounts describe.
Position
Read these numbers as a measure of interdiction, not of deterrence. Listing makes possession an offence the moment a species enters a Schedule, which is why enforcement can be reported within days; conviction depends on a State forest department that is not the agency that made the seizure, and whose record this release does not carry.
Deploys into: Wildlife conservation and the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (GS3.14) · statutory authorities and the division of enforcement powers (GS2.9) · organised wildlife trafficking networks · why seizure counts are not conviction counts · CITES appendices and domestic schedules
Ministry of Finance · 2026-09-09 · PRID 2308530 · PIB source ↗