DRI requests head of foreign trade dept to consider moving SC against a Kerala HC order that’s being used to bypass govt ban on export of shark fins.
New Delhi: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) Sunday seized around 8,000 kg of stock, believed to be shark fins, from Maharashtra and Gujarat that is allegedly meant for illicit export to China and Hong Kong.
As part of its crackdown on wildlife smuggling, the DRI has also requested the Director General of Foreign Trade to consider moving the Supreme Court against a Kerala high court order that is being used to circumvent a government ban on export of shark fins, ThePrint has learnt.
An exporter, Marine Finns, as reported earlier by ThePrint, has been accused of using the state high court order to act in contravention of the government notification.
The DRI Monday said the illicit export of shark fins, which were claimed to be dried ray skins, dried marine products, fish maw, etc. were part of a larger smuggling network engaged in wildlife crime.
Four persons, including the ‘mastermind’ have been intercepted by the DRI. During the course of the investigations, the DRI found that the stock of shark fins is replenished regularly even as its export has been prohibited by the Central government.
Also read: Kerala firm accused of skirting ban to kill endangered sharks
Cruel practice
Shark finning, known to be a grisly and cruel practice, involves cutting off the characteristic fin of the sharks while the fish are alive. More often than not, after the fins are removed, the shark is discarded back into the ocean, rendering it incapable of swimming since it uses the fin to swim and steer itself. As a result, the shark sinks to the bottom of the ocean and invariably dies of suffocation, starvation, blood loss, or is eaten by other predators.
Given the cruel nature of the practice and the shrinking population of several species of sharks which are endangered, the Centre banned the export of its fins in 2015 in keeping with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, to which India is a signatory.
Stock before prohibition
In a letter to Union Minister Maneka Gandhi dated 23 August, DRI director general Debi Prasad Dash noted that Marine Finns exported 14,596 kg of shark fins during the financial years 2015-16 and 2016-17 — after the central notification banning exports.
“There is no credible evidence to the effect that this stock was procured before such prohibition was notified,” Dash said in the letter.
Also read: Maneka Gandhi wants central agency to probe Kerala shark fin ‘export scam’
According to a forest officer tracking the activities of Marine Finns, the firm routinely moves the Kerala high court for extensions to clear the existing stock in order to circumvent the central notification, and the high court has granted extensions on at least three occasions, as reported by ThePrint.
The latest 21 May high court order, which has given the firm yet another extension, “appears to have defeated the very purpose of prohibition on the export of Shark Fins,” Dash said in the letter.
In March, the DRI carried out a search operation at the premises of the company, and a 6,400-kg stock was seized and handed over to the Kerala Forest Department.
“Since the exporter has stated that no stock apart from the 6400 kgs handed over by DRI to Kerala Forest Department is available with them, there appears to be no possibility of any further export of Shark Fins by the said exporter, unless the current stock is returned to the exporter by the forest department,” Dash said in the letter.