Somewhere in the collective memory of Indian cinema perches Allah Rakha, the trained bird of prey from Coolie that generations of filmgoers grew up watching. It was a small but glamorous detail in a blockbuster, a wild creature transformed into a loyal companion. It would be difficult to prove that any one film encouraged the wildlife trade. Yet such portrayals can make proximity to a wild animal appear exciting, harmless and even aspirational. The reality behind that image is far less charming.A 2020 study of Facebook groups and pages in Thailand recorded 396 raptors and owls offered for sale between February 2015 and June 2019. These included nine shikras. Researchers found evidence that wild birds, including chicks taken from nests, were being offered online; one juvenile shikra was explicitly advertised as wild-caught.
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The falcon story, then, is not an isolated cultural memory. It points to a trade that has moved from cages in traditional markets to photographs, private messages and social-media listings.Earlier this month, a joint operation by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, supported by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, recovered 53 protected animals and birds from locations in Maharashtra and West Bengal. The haul included 15 slow lorises, two binturongs, 28 star tortoises, six Egyptian vultures and two shikras. Six people were arrested in connection with what investigators described as an alleged interstate wildlife-trafficking syndicate. The investigation remains under way. The raid was an important enforcement success. It was also a window into a conservation crisis that rarely receives the attention reserved for tiger skins, elephant ivory or rhino horn.
From forest animal to social-media prop
Slow lorises are especially vulnerable to the visual economy of the exotic-pet trade. Their large eyes and seemingly gentle movements make them attractive subjects for videos, tourist photographs and online posts. What looks endearing on a screen can conceal capture, transport, injury and prolonged stress.Studies of the tourist-photo trade have documented nocturnal slow lorises being exposed to bright lights and repeated flash photography, conditions that can disrupt their natural activity patterns and potentially damage their light-sensitive eyes.
Egyptian vulture
The physical toll can be severe. Researchers examining 77 confiscated greater slow lorises taken to a rehabilitation centre in Indonesia found that 28.6% died within six months, mostly because of traumatic injuries. All the infants in the group died. External wounds, dental problems and abnormal behaviour were common among those that survived. The study did not claim that every injury occurred during capture or transport, but it demonstrated the extraordinary welfare cost carried by animals moving through the illegal trade. By the time a wild animal appears in someone’s home or on a tourist’s shoulder, others may already have died along the supply chain. The binturong faces a similar pressure. A 2024 study of online trade in Indonesia found 594 advertisements offering 724 live binturongs, with 97.6% of the listings appearing on Facebook. Researchers concluded that the exotic-pet trade appeared to be the principal source of demand in their dataset. Although the exact origins of most animals could not be established, the authors argued that a large share were probably taken illegally from the wild. Seizure records from 2015 to 2023 included 103 live binturongs. The evidence comes from Indonesia, and should not automatically be treated as a measure of the trade in India. But it shows how quickly demand for a relatively little-known forest animal can grow once buyers and sellers find one another online.
When beauty and belief become threats
Not every trafficked animal is bought for the same reason. The Indian star tortoise is prized for the striking pattern on its shell and is widely sought in the exotic-pet trade. In some markets, demand is also reinforced by beliefs that tortoises bring luck, prosperity or blessings. Those beliefs may sound benign, but they can turn a wild animal into an object of possession and encourage the removal of thousands of individuals from their natural habitat. The Egyptian vultures recovered during the CBI-DRI operation require more careful interpretation. The official release confirms their recovery but does not say why they were being traded or what the intended buyers planned to do with them. It would therefore be premature to attribute this particular seizure to occult practices, medicine or any other specific purpose. What is clear is that the Egyptian vulture is already endangered and faces several established threats, including poisoning, unsafe veterinary drugs, electrocution and the ingestion of contaminated carcasses. Illegal capture or trade adds another hazard to a species that has little room left for additional pressure. The larger lesson is that wildlife trafficking is not one market. It is a collection of overlapping markets driven by pets, status, food, traditional practices, decorative value and beliefs about luck or healing. Different species enter the chain for different reasons, but the result is often the same, an animal is removed from the wild and reduced to a commodity.
A crisis hiding in plain sight
Public attention to wildlife crime naturally gravitates towards tigers, elephants and rhinos. Sustained focus on these species has helped strengthen legislation, enforcement and public awareness. But the success of flagship-species conservation can create a blind spot. It can leave the impression that the broader war on wildlife trafficking is being won, even as birds, reptiles, primates and small carnivores continue to move through less visible networks.A Lok Sabha reply issued in August 2025 listed 820 wildlife-crime cases reported to the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau in 2020, followed by 632 in 2021, 546 in 2022, 349 in 2023 and 354 in 2024. These were cases registered and reported by state and central enforcement agencies. They are not estimates of the total number of wildlife crimes committed.
The numbers therefore require care. The broad decline may indicate better deterrence, changing enforcement priorities or variations in reporting. It may also reflect the growing difficulty of detecting transactions that have moved online. The small increase from 349 cases in 2023 to 354 in 2024 also means the series is not an uninterrupted annual fall. A detected case tells us that enforcement found something. A falling number of detected cases does not, by itself, tell us whether the underlying trade is shrinking.
The bazaar and the smartphone
The modern wildlife trade does not require the dark web. Ordinary social-media platforms are sufficient. A photograph can function as a shop window. The price can be negotiated through a private message. Buyers and sellers may never meet until the animal is delivered or handed to an intermediary. Research on the online trade in raptors and binturongs shows how public or semi-private social-media groups can connect sellers with a large customer base while making monitoring difficult.But the smartphone has not replaced the traditional wildlife market. The two systems can coexist. Repeated enforcement operations at Delhi’s Kabutar Market near Jama Masjid illustrate the resilience of the physical trade. Wildlife SOS reported that 1,741 birds, including around 500 chicks, were recovered in a 2022 operation. In July 2024, the Delhi Forest Department recovered around 1,000 birds following a complaint by PETA India. Nearly 150 more parakeets and pigeons were recovered in another operation that December. These figures do not establish that every trader in the market is involved in illegal activity. They do, however, show that protected native birds have repeatedly been found within an established commercial space. An IndiaSpend investigation into bird markets in Delhi, Patna and Lucknow also reported sales of protected species, poor welfare conditions and widespread non-compliance with registration requirements. Such findings should be attributed to the specific investigation rather than used to condemn every pet-shop owner or vendor in those cities.
Shikra
Under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Pet Shop) Rules, establishments selling live animals are required to register and maintain prescribed welfare and record-keeping standards. Separately, the Wild Life (Protection) Act regulates the possession and trade of protected wildlife. Registration as a pet shop does not authorise a business to sell a protected native species.
Looking beyond the flagship species
Raids matter. They rescue individual animals, disrupt supply chains and create consequences for traffickers. But repeated recoveries from the same markets show the limits of enforcement that addresses supply without reducing demand. Protecting biodiversity will require closer monitoring of online platforms, better coordination among forest departments, police, customs authorities and courier networks, and consistent action against the illegal sale of protected species. Social-media companies must also become more effective at identifying and removing wildlife-sale posts rather than relying largely on outside researchers and activists to flag them.Public behaviour matters just as much. A person posing with a nocturnal primate may see only an unusual holiday photograph. A buyer taking home a tortoise may believe that one small purchase cannot harm a species. Someone sharing an exotic-pet video may not know whether the animal was legally bred or pulled from the wild.But demand is built from individual acts. Every impulsive purchase, paid photograph and viral post can add value to the next animal waiting to be captured. South Asia’s conservation story cannot end with the tiger, the elephant or the rhino. Its future also depends on the shikra in the cage, the loris under the camera flash, the tortoise hidden inside a bag and the binturong advertised through a phone screen. These are the creatures that rarely command front pages. They are also the ones the wildlife trade is counting on nobody to notice.Dr. Ridhima Solanki holds a PhD in Natural Resources and Wildlife Sciences and a Master’s in Forestry, with over a decade of experience shaping wildlife policy and practice across India and Southeast Asia.
