The Central Bureau of Investigation has booked a Delhi-based company and its director for allegedly smuggling peacock tail feathers to a China-based entity. Several consignments of feathers were sent via 26 shipping bills from September last year till February.
The racket was unearthed when the Customs authorities recently seized a consignment containing about 21 lakh pieces of peacock tail feathers at the Inland Container Depot in Delhi’s Tughlakabad. It had been booked by Galaxy Rider through two shipping bills dated February 26, 2021. The company’s director was identified as Ayaz Ahmed, a resident of north-east Delhi.
The consignment, booked through Logistic Curator India Private Limited, consisted of 77 packages weighing about 2,565 kg, with an estimated value of about ₹5.25 core. The accused had declared the contents as “plastic flexible pipes”.
As it turned out, Logistic Curator India had authorised a man named Amit Mishra for filing the export/import shipping bills and on its behalf, he had handled the consignment in question. Further investigation revealed that the accused had earlier shipped several consignments of peacock tail feathers to the entity in China following the same modus operandi.
The First Information Report alleged that the seized feathers had been plucked by way of poaching peacocks and that its smuggling was part of a huge criminal network.
The peacock, the national bird of India, is protected under Schedule-I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act. The hunting of peacocks is also prohibited under the Act.
