From Delhi’s Majnu ka Tila, ‘herb trader’ turned out to be international tiger trafficker on Interpol radar

On January 24 last year, Sherpa, who had been absconding for the last eight years, was arrested by the Madhya Pradesh Police’s Special Tiger Strike Force near Darjeeling, close to the India-Nepal border. Last month, Chief Judicial Magistrate Feroze Akhtar sentenced Sherpa to imprisonment for five years. He is currently lodged in the Hosangabad district jail.

David Caunter, Director of Interpol’s Organised and Emerging Crime, has now reached out to the Madhya Pradesh government, seeking “financial records, business details and interrogation records” of Sherpa. Caunter also offered Interpol’s support to investigate the broader criminal network linked to Sherpa.

The investigation carried out by the Special Tiger Strike Force has revealed that Sherpa was a crucial international link in a wildlife trafficking network that systematically targeted tigers and pangolins and trafficked their parts into Chinese markets. Court documents reveal that Sherpa’s trafficking ring was spread across parts of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Sikkim, Nepal and China.

According to court documents, the network first came on the police radar on July 13, 2015, when “Maniram and Gannu, mahouts patrolling on elephants, spotted 10 individuals” in the Karimat area of the Satpura Tiger Reserve. The mahouts chased the group on elephants, but they allegedly fled. The abandoned campsite yielded a crucial piece of evidence: three pangolin skulls in a bag.

Ten arrests followed on August 21, 2015, triggering confessions that mapped the spread of the network. Court documents show that two of the accused, Shrivas and Sakharam, allegedly admitted in February 2015 that they hunted a tiger, about 1-1.5 years old, near Gendi Nala in the Churna Range, close to the village of Sankai in Hoshangabad by poisoning a cow carcass with pesticide. They allegedly sold the tiger’s skin and bones, besides some pangolin scales, to Farukh Miyan from Shahpur.

The call detail records of the accused led the investigators to J E Tamang and his partner Lachungpa Yangchen, who, according to the Tiger Strike Force, are “international traders of wildlife parts and leaders of a large racket”. Bank records of the two revealed “significant transactions” of over Rs 65 lakh in a space of 6-7 months.

It was Tamang’s arrest on October 29, 2015 that allegedly exposed Sherpa’s central role in the operation. Tamang told the investigators that his while his business involved selling herbs, “he also illegally bought and sold tiger skins, bones, pangolin scales, and red sandalwood”.

Tamang said he was shown tiger bones when he visited a mutton shop owned by Sheikh Yunus in Itarsi district of Madhya Pradesh. A deal was struck, Tamang paid Yunus an advance of Rs 20,000 and instructed him to deliver “the goods to New Delhi”.

Court records detail how, about 10-15 days later, Yunus arrived in New Delhi, allegedly carrying a bag with 12 kg of tiger bones and 9 kg of pangolin scales.

This is when Sherpa comes into the picture. In Delhi, Sherpa allegedly purchased the tiger bones from Yunus at Rs 12,000 a kg and the pangolin scales at Rs 7,000 a kg.

Court documents record that “Sheikh Yunus returned to New Delhi in February 2015 with another large bag containing approximately 14 kg of tiger bones and 19 kg of pangolin scales.”

This second transaction was at a higher price. “This time, he (Yunus) sold the tiger bones at Rs 14,000 per kilogram and the pangolin scales at Rs 8,000 per kilogram, earning a profit of Rs 1,500 per kilogram on tiger bones and Rs 500 per kilogram on pangolin scales…”

Tamang, out on bail in a separate case, has been absconding, with an Interpol Red Corner Notice against him. His partner Yangchen, who was arrested on September 15, 2017, allegedly told the investigators that between March and July 2022, Tamang travelled to Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and to Gadchiroli in Maharashtra in February 2023 to expand their network.

All along, they allegedly stayed in touch with Sherpa.

Ritesh Sirothia, who heads the MP State Tiger Strike Force, told The Indian Express, “Sherpa set up one of the biggest wildlife parts smuggling operation in the country. He began his operations in 2010 and built his network in Madhya Pradesh, UP, Delhi, Sikkim, Nepal and China. He was operating this network from Majnu Ka Tila, selling tiger and pangolin parts. We have arrested 30 people in this case and his was the 29th arrest.”

The case ultimately involved 36 accused, with prosecution records showing that “29 have been arrested, and complaints have been filed against them”.

Statistics presented to the court in the aftermath of the case are stark. The prosecution has told the court that 308 cases of wildlife poaching were “recorded in Narmadapuram alone and 171 cases of tiger poaching in Madhya Pradesh. Currently, only 785 tigers remain in Madhya Pradesh due to illegal poaching.”