Not all animals migrate by choice Campaign

UN Environment India and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) of India launched an awareness campaign ‘Not all animals migrate by choice’.

About the Campaign

• The campaign is aimed at creating awareness and garnering public support for the protection and conservation of wildlife, prevention of smuggling and reduction in demand for wildlife products.
• The campaign complements worldwide action on illegal trade in wildlife through UN Environment’s global campaign, Wild for Life.
• This campaign aims to create awareness on wildlife trafficking which threatens the very survival of these species.
• In the first phase of the campaign, Tiger, Pangolin, Star Tortoise and Tokay Gecko have been chosen as they are highly endangered due to illegal trading in International markets.

In collaboration with the Airports Authority of India and GMR Group, UN Environment India and WCCB aim to take the campaign across 22 airports across India over the next year.

Wildlife Crime Control Bureau

Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) is a statutory multi-disciplinary body established by the Government of India under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.

Functions of WCCB

• Disseminating intelligence to the concerned state enforcement agencies for timely and result-oriented action.
• Developing a wildlife crime database management system with connectivity with the state enforcement agencies for uploading of crime data to help in record generation as well as wildlife crime analysis to take preventive/punitive measures.
• Co-ordinating the efforts and actions of various state and central enforcement agencies towards better enforcement of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
• Developing infrastructure and capacity building of the enforcement officials to tackle wildlife crime and illegal trade and to equip them with the latest know-how of trends, technology and methods to counter and bust organized wildlife crime networks.
• Take steps to advise the Government of India to implement obligations under various international conventions and protocols in force and to assist the efforts of various international law enforcement agencies towards enforcement of legal provisions.
• To advice the Government of India on issues relating to wildlife crimes having national and international ramifications and suggest changes in relevant policy related to wildlife crimes.
• To assist and advise the Customs authorities in inspection of the consignments of flora & fauna as per the provisions of Wild Life Protection Act, CITES and EXIM Policy governing such an item.

The Bureau has its headquarter in New Delhi and five regional offices at Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Jabalpur.