Endangered soon?

Ranchi, Aug. 12: For smugglers, owl trafficking has become one of the profitable businesses these days.

With each of the owl fetching as much as Rs 1 lakh, the nocturnal creature is almost on the threshold of being endangered. The state forests, environment and wildlife department has sounded a red alert to all foresters keep a sharp look on poachers and smugglers of owls, said chief wildlife warden A.K. Singh.

Owls are in great demand in the global market with several countries using them for alternative medicine and also for research work.

The menace of smuggling of owls from the country has reached alarming proportions. The fallout is estimated to the range from extinction of many species of the bird to critical depletion in number of other species. The depletion in the number of owls has resulted in a radical increase in the number of field rats in the countryside which in turn affect crops and grain kept for storage, said a forest official.

Bird experts say that three species of owls — Barn, Great Horned and Eurasian Eagle — are currently in great demand and each of these bird could fetch anywhere between Rs 30,000 and Rs 1 lakh in the international market. Twenty-two species of owls are found in India and most of them are also spotted in Jharkhand. Trafficking of owls mostly goes on through the porous borders of Nepal and Bangladesh. Owls are being smuggled out by roads and in ones and twos since they weigh anywhere around 3-4kg and cannot be carried in bulk.