More to spy birds: Poaching rare birds for Pakistan?

6 Feb 2009
Dhanesh Patil, TNN
THANE: The Anti Poaching Unit, the vigilance wing of the forest department, and a Mumbai-based NGO, has trapped a group of people for dealing with wild birds illegally. What's shocking is that the birds recovered belong to the same species that have been earlier used by Pakistan as spies. So what seemed like a case of the forest department trapping people to save the rare species of birds has now assumed a new dimension. The Intelligence Bureau is reportedly looking whether this case is linked with Pakistan. The accused are now in police custody.

The case began with founder of PAWS, the NGO, Sunish Subramanyam registering a complaint against the website oxl.com, where the wild birds are placed for sale. The Thane forest department took the lead and arrested two youths - Farhan Anwar Khan (24) and Mohammed Siddiqui Sayyed (25) aka Javed - and seized their vehicle, a Santro on Jan 31. The department trapped these people near Santa Cruz airport. After interrogation, the duo revealed the name of Ashpak Yasin Mohmin (30), the main seller of these birds. The department then trapped Ashpak at Crawford Market on Feb 4. He has a shop there and he undertakes the illegal activity of selling rare species of birds from here.

"We received a complaint against this illegal activity following the complaint regarding the website. Zeroing in on this, we trapped the three accused. The Schedule I Part III of Wildlife Protection Act 1972 says that the birds belong to rare species and there is a ban on their sale. The duo asked for a price of Rs 12,000 for each bird thus violating the Wildlife Protection Act. The most important thing is that these birds fall into Schedule I, making them rare species, and hence their conservation is most important for us," said Assistant Conservator of Forests Satish Phale.

Sources said that the forest department had earlier laid two traps to nab the accused, but they failed. Finally, they called the officials at Santa Cruz airport and managed to nab them on Saturday night. The forest department and PAWS team had posed as decoy customers. After getting enough information from the accused, they trapped them.

The sources also claimed that these are the same birds which are used by Pakistan as spies after giving rigorous training. These birds found in northern part of the India and are a rare sight in this area. It is now claimed that there is a chain of people selling such birds. The Intelligence Bureau is now believed to be scrutinising the matter and trying to ascertain whether these men are also linked with the espionage network.

14 squirrels arrested for spying in Iran

///Islamic Republic's intelligence agents allege rodents were carrying advanced Western spy gear///

Dudi Cohen
Iranian intelligence operatives recently detained over a dozen squirrels found within the nation's borders, claiming the rodents were serving as spies for Western powers determined to undermine the Islamic Republic.

"In recent weeks, intelligence operatives have arrested 14 squirrels within Iran's borders," state-sponsored news agency IRNA reported. "The squirrels were carrying spy gear of foreign agencies, and were stopped before they could act, thanks to the alertness of our intelligence services."

Iranian police commander Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqadam confirmed the report, saying that a number of squirrels had been caught bearing foreign spy gear within Iran's borders. "I heard of this but I have no specific knowledge on the subject," he said. He refused to give further details.


Recently, Iran has increased its efforts in combating espionage by the West. The use of rodents has not been documented in the past.
(source:ynettnews)

Iran arrests ‘spy pigeons’ near N-site

TEHERAN: Security forces in Natanz had arrested two suspected “pigeons” on charges of spying near Iran’s controversial uranium enrichment facility on October 21, 2008.

One of the pigeons was caught near a rose water production plant in the city of Kashan in Isfahan province, sources said, adding that some metal rings and invisible strings were attached to the bird.

“Early this month, a black pigeon was caught bearing a blue-coated metal ring, with invisible strings,”. Natanz is home to Iran’s heavily-bunkered underground uranium enrichment plant, which is not far from Kashan.

The activity is the focus of Iran’s five-year standoff with the West, which that fears it aims to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran vehemently denies the charge. Last year, Iran issued a formal protest over the use of espionage by the United States to produce a key intelligence report on the country’s controversial nuclear programme.

Hawk shot on suspicion of ‘spying for Pak’ by BSF

Red Ring

CAN birds identify national borders? Yes…if the claims of Indian border security forces are anything to go by. The Indian BSF jawans caught a spy-hawk fitted with a transmitter - generally used as a directional finder by hunters - near border town of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan on December 6. This was the second time that the border security has caught a hawk on suspicion of spying.

A Pakistan sponsored spy hawk fitted with an antenna and other equipment was caught by BSF personnel at Shahgarh-Balj in this border district of Rajasthan, BSF officials told media adding it was first seen on an electric pole by BSF officials and it later landed on their vehicle in search of probably food and water.

DIG BSF (Rajasthan Frontier) R C Dhyani told media said that 38th Battalion of BSF men deployed at Kheru Wala border outpost spotted the hawk. He said the hawk is fully trained and had flown into the border along with another bird, which was injured with a gunshot. As the injured bird fell near the BSF post, the hawk also sat down after which it was caught. The brown colour bird has been trained by the experts, it has tags attached to its feet, and authorities are now planning to hand them over to a zoo.

During technical inspection officials detected that the bird was fitted with an antenna and there was no camera as suspected earlier. A hawk fitted with transmitter was caught in similar condition in 2006 and 2007 also but was later found to be only a directional finder. Last catch was in March 6, 2000.

Experts however say that these trained birds which cost lakhs of rupees are owned by royal families of Saudi Arabia, who are reportedly present in Pakistan to hunt rare species of birds. The sources said they used the trained hawk to hunt for the rare bird species, like Siberian Crane and others. Trained hawk chases rare species of birds and injures them, after which hunters track them using transmitters and catch them. It also informed that antenna worth Rs 7-8 lakh is installed on the bird. Training costs over Rs 2-3 lakhs thus totalling the cost to approximately Rs 10 lakh.

Dead falcon proves Rann is Arab Sheikhs’hunting ground

D V MAHESHWARI (Indian Express)
Dec 21, 2007 (Bhuj)
The story on rich Arab Sheikhs hunting the endangered Houbara Bustard on the Pakistani side of the Great Rann of Kutch, carried by Newsline last Sunday, stands corroborated. This migratory bird of the Bustard family, found on both sides of Indo-Pak border along the Rann, is globally listed as an endangered species. But Pakistan issues special permits to rich Arab Sheikhs to come on their side of the Rann each winter to take part in an annual hunting promotion, which Islamabad endorses as part of its ‘winter sports’ promotion.

Highly placed sources in the Border Security Force (BSF), which man the Kutch border with Sind province of Pakistan in the Rann, now say they find no traces of the luxurious air-conditioned tents specially pitched on the Pakistani side of the border to facilitate the hunting games.

“The VIP hunters, accompanied by Pakistan Rangers (BSF’s counterpart in Pakistan) move around in their luxurious Toyota cars for hunting these birds for a long time every winter. This is just the beginning of the season, and to our surprise we have not seen tents and Toyotas for the past two to three days. This could be due to the detailed report regarding this hunting that appeared in The Indian Express. We have even reported this matter to our headquarters,” a senior BSF official told this paper on Thursday.

The corroboration also lies in the discovery of a transmitter-fitted falcon in the border district on Tuesday. Koli Jusab Ibrahim, who makes charcoal in the jungle of Gaduli village close to the border found the bird of prey, carrying two metal rings and a radio transmitter on its tail. He handed over the bird to the Lakhapat Police, who ruled it out as a spy bird.

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Nakhatra, Dr Girish Pandya said the bird must be from some search organisation in the UAE.

Jugal Kishor Tiwari, an ornithologist, said the bird is a female Gyr falcon. “It was alive when caught by the villager, but died later. I had examined it and found no injury of any kind on its body. I could have thrown more light I been allowed to examine the ring. It had a radio transmitter on its tail. Such falcons are used by the rich Arabs for hunting of the Houbara. It is not a spy bird,” he said.

Kishor and other local bird watchers believe that it must have strayed into this side of the border from across Pakistan. But as studies have shown that the falcon is not the type to birds to lose direction easily, the transmitter might be at fault.

The bird decides on its direction on the basis of the Earth’s poles with the help of a magnetic field in its brain. However, when fitted with a scientific device having a magnetic field, the bird gets confused and becomes directionless. This must have happened in this case also, an expert said.