Forest watch !

Forest Watch is our undercover team, dedicated towards stopping the poaching and trade of bears and bear cubs in India. The team works closely with the forest department and the police in various states across the country.

It gathers intelligence about cub-poaching and trade with the help of informers who were once themselves involved in poaching or trade. Once a trader or a poacher is spotted, the informer passes the information to the Delhi headquarters and a Forest Watch! member is dispatched to gather more information and evidence.

The tracking may take several months to complete as the team always tries to unearth the entire underground ring of traders and poachers which is usually spread across a few states across the country.

On many occasions, the team members disguise themselves as traders or wildlife traffickers to win the confidence of the target. Once enough evidence and information has been collected, the team passes the same to the local law enforcement authorities and a joint operation is conducted at various points to arrest the people involved.

Internationally, wildlife crimes are second only to Narcotics. A large quantity of wildlife products are smuggled from India to the International markets. This includes live animals, birds and reptiles, along with skins, bone and other body parts. "Wildlife Warriors” is our special task force working in surveillance and evidence collection.

Any information whatsoever may be sent to us from any part of India. We depend on ordinary people who feel strongly about the protection of wildlife and environment to inform us.

The identity of the informers is kept confidential and under no circumstances are their identities revealed. Wildlife SOS has rescued hundreds of birds, recovered animal skins & ivory, live animals from poachers and traders from various states in India. All seizures and raids are conducted with the help of the enforcement authorities, and our legal cell ensures that the maximum punishment is awarded to the offenders.

Wildlife SOS works in partnership with One Voice Association, France to run a dedicated Anti-poaching Unit to stamp out poaching.

CaseSTudy - 1 : Bibi Jaan - The lady trader who traded bear cubs for more than 20 years

Trade route used by many wildlife traders and poachers

The Forest Watch! team was tracking the ever-elusive 'Lady trader

She was in the trade for
20 Years!!

Bibi Jaan and her accomplice after being nabbed

Bibi Jan could never have suspected the old man with beetle-nut stained teeth, a bead necklace and shabby clothes , who visited her house with a reference to buy the sloth bear cubs she had been hiding in a secret place.

' who was one of the suppliers to Qalandars across the country. Forest Watch! first got information about this lady when it rescued 'Guna' from a trader in 2004.

Then, there was another tip off from a poacher who told one of the decoy traders about a secure and regular source controlled by a lady who can supply as many as 20-25 bear cubs in a season. It took the team one year to find 'Bibi Jan', and another three months to catch her red handed.

A Forest Watch! decoy, who posed as a 'Sadhu' from Orissa, assured her that he will buy the entire stock of five cubs for a Russian circus owner, who is in Hubli town. He went with a reference from another trader (who got arrested later too) to establish his authenticity. After a few days' meetings, the decoy, along with the 'Russian Circus Owner' was taken to the place where the poached cubs were hidden.

The Karnataka Forest Department was informed and within a few hours Bibi Jan and some of her associates were arrested in two separate raids conducted by the joint team.

The arrest of Bibi Jan ensured that no cubs will be poached or sold from the area where shewasoperating.The lady was virtually controlling the entire cub trade mafia with assistance from her close relatives.

The legal wing of Forest Watch!, headed by an experienced wildlife lawyer, is following up on the case. Bibi Jan and her associates are now behind the bars, still trying to figure out how they were arrested by the authorities who had been clueless about their operation for last twenty years.