Trafficking: Malaysia sees monkey on its back

TWO weeks after a delegation of top Indian officials raised the issue of repeated seizures of exotic wildlife species (at Indian airports) smuggled from Malaysia, a senior minister there inspected the Kuala Lumpur airport on March 7 where he emphasised on taking effective enforcement measures to eradicate such illegal activities.

- SIDDHARTH PRABHAKAR @ Chennai

In an official release recently, Nik Nazmi bin Nik Ahmad, Malaysia's Minister for Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability, acknowledged that the country is used as a transit point for smuggling of high-value wildlife-like exotic reptiles, elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns. He shared Indian data which showed an increase in exotic wildlife seizures from Malaysia going up from eight in 2023 to 12 in 2024. The Kuala Lumpur airport has a high risk of wildlife smuggling, he said, stressing on the need to eradicate this activity.