Among the several endangered wildlife species that continue to be smuggled out of India’s Northeast is a nocturnal lizard called tokay gecko, which commands an extremely high value in the grey markets of China and Southeast Asia.
On April 12, police in Dibrugarh in the northeastern state of Assam confiscated 11 tokay gecko lizards. Three smugglers were arrested.
A nocturnal lizard, the tokay gecko is among several endangered wildlife species that are being smuggled out of the Northeast.
The export of tokay geckos is banned as it is listed under the highly endangered category in the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. In 2018, the Assam government had also included the species and the Assamese Day Gecko in a new list of threatened species.
The tokay gecko is one of the largest gecko species found in India and the second-largest globally. It is estimated that of about 6,000 species of lizards worldwide, 231 are found in India.
In India, it is found only in the northeastern states and West Bengal. It is commonly spotted in urban and rural areas, in natural habitats and forests, and in trees with large canopy cover.
Tokay geckos have a blue-grey skin with spots ranging from light yellow to vibrant red. They measure between 11 and 19 inches and weigh around 150-400 grams. They are highly prized for their use in traditional Asian medicines.
The tokay geckos’ internal organs, meat, and tongue are used in the treatment of various ailments, including asthma, cancer, diabetes, impotence, and skin diseases. Some reports suggest that a fluid sucked out from the tokay gecko that resembles blood has a high demand in China for treatment of cancer.
Forest department officials believe that research is being conducted to artificially replicate the adhesive ingredient found in the feet of the tokay gecko for developing reusable tape for use as a non-invasive injury healing material.
According to wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic, poaching and illegal trade in tokay geckos rose sharply in 2009, after the tongue and internal organs of the reptile were seen as a potential unproven remedy for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and cancer.
Since then, seizures of this gecko species have been reported almost every year from different parts of the Northeast. A forest department official was quoted as saying some years ago that the overseas demand for the tokay gecko has prompted smugglers to set up breeding centers at Silapathar in Assam. The price it commands has escalated over the past several years. After the latest seizure in Dibrugarh, police claimed that a single lizard could fetch a smuggler around $70,000.
Tokay geckos are mostly smuggled to China and Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia. “Earlier, the route through Myanmar was highly active. After the coup four years ago, the species is smuggled out through other routes,” another forest department official claimed, adding that Kolkata and Siliguri in West Bengal are a few hubs where some kingpins of the illicit trade are based.
An interplay of many factors has made India’s Northeast an ideal hub of smuggling.
First, India’s Northeast has a high biodiversity and is home to a large number of rare species. Last year, two truck drivers hailing from the state of Chhattisgarh were arrested in Assam for their alleged involvement in the smuggling of the Indian flapshell turtle, which is categorized as a “vulnerable” wildlife species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The Northeast is sandwiched between South and Southeast Asia, where countries have porous borders that facilitate smuggling. A variety of rare and exotic wildlife species is also smuggled into the Northeast from Myanmar, which is then distributed to different parts of India. Although consignments are seized regularly, it can be safely said that many consignments reach the buyers in various parts of the country.
Loopholes in the government machinery have greatly facilitated the illegal trade. Honorary wildlife warden Jayanta Das, who has been involved in seizing consignments of tokay gecko, believes that stringent laws ought to be enacted immediately to prevent further depletion of the rare species in the region. Special courts for the trial of the accused and awareness campaigns in rural areas need to be organized to curb the illegal trade, he said.