Ivory use and trade shifts underground in India

Under the Indian Wild Life (Protection) Act (1972) moves to curb both international and domestic trade in raw ivory and ivory products have been successively initiated since 1977 by government authorities. In a decisive 1997 ruling, the High Court proclaimed: "No citizen has the fundamental right to trade in ivory or ivory articles, whether indigenous or imported."

The TRAFFIC report launched in collaboration with WWF India entitled 'An Assessment of the Domestic Ivory Carving Industry and Trade Controls in India' examines the ivory trade in 2000 and 2001, and shows that hundreds of Indian craftsmen were still using ivory. "With demand from both domestic and international sources, the high profits gained from ivory -- usually ten times that for similar articles fashioned from other materials - are strong incentives to stay in business", said Steven Broad, the Executive Director of TRAFFIC.

TRAFFIC urges India to take immediate action to establish why the ban, which also prohibits any trade in pre-ban ivory stocks in the country, is being breached with apparent ease and regularity. More rigorous enforcement of existing laws against elephant poaching and ivory trade is urgently needed in order to halt the continuing domestic commerce.

The study found that both foreign and Indian nationals purchase ivory artifacts such as carvings, jewelry and, even occasionally, name seals. It also identified a continuing link between Indian demand and cultural traditions unique to India that produce religious carvings of Hindu gods, ivory and wood inlay pieces and miniature Mogul paintings on ivory. The most active production and collection areas for raw ivory are Orissa, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal, and the most active markets for worked ivory were found to be Murshidabad in West Bengal, Jaipur and Udaipur in Rajasthan, and Kochi and Thiruvanathapuram in the southern state of Kerala. Nepal also stands out from this investigation as an international destination for Indian ivory carvings.

According to the study, the four main sources of raw ivory were locally-poached Asian Elephants, domesticated elephants in India, smuggled African Elephant ivory, as well as pre-ban ivory stocks in India. "As for India's pre-ban stock, there is little consolidated information on its volume or locations. Some stocks continue to remain in possession of dealers with no ongoing monitoring system to ensure they are not leaking onto the marketplace," said Broad. "It is now imperative to account for these stocks urgently in efforts to improve the situation."

Between 1996 and 2001, an annual average of at least 270kg of raw ivory was seized in India, indicating that national law enforcement efforts were meeting with some success. However, the seizures also demonstrate a large, continuing domestic market and further efforts to stamp out such trade are imperative.

The existence of a potent domestic ivory market in India is especially worrying in the face of a documented increasing global trend in international smuggling of ivory. India, together with Kenya, has consistently opposed moves to re-open limited conditional ivory trade at the meetings of the Conference of the Parties to CITES since the 1990 ban.

Statistical analysis under Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS3) tabled at the Twelfth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES4 last year indicates that international, illegal trade in ivory is directly correlated to the presence of large-scale, unregulated domestic ivory markets. Located in both Africa and Asia these markets have become increasingly more active since 1996 and account for the greatest volume of ivory being seized throughout the world. "If we want to stop elephant poaching, we must address these markets in India and elsewhere now," said Broad.

TRAFFIC's report should be a wake-up call for urgent action by Indian authorities to step-up enforcement efforts and address the root causes of this trade.