7,700 rhino’s[1] were poached between the year 2007 to 2013. 2500 elephants were poached in the year 2011, for their ivory . Instances of tiger poaching is increasing at a rate of 38% every year. Wildlife crime is increasing fast. The very need to preserve the ecosystem and the ill done to the wildlife has called for forensics to be involved in solving the wildlife the globe. Clubbing forensics with the laws makers of wildlife would not only make the implementation easier but also would speed up the process of investigation and would also enable crime reduction.
WHAT IS WILDLIFE FORENISCS?
Wildlife forensics encompass all the aspects of wildlife trade, export and abuse done. The branch basically deals with the production of evidences that provokes further investigation of a wildlife crime. The answers to the questions involving the type of crime done, the specimen involved , its geographic origin is provided by various forensic techniques encoporated.
Crimes against wildlife could be most categorized as, poaching, trading, possession of protected articles and cruelty infliction against wildlife.
THE BASIC QUESTIONS TO BE CONSIDERED WHILE INVESTIGATION
In a wildlife crime being committed[2] , at the very first place ,unlike general crime is to check whether the crime has been committed or not. This is done by identifying the specie involve as whether protected or not .
The next thing to be considered is their origin or area where they were bread, so as to find out the cases involving illegally captive bred. The age of the specimen is another significant area of concern to be answered. The gender of the specimen involved. The reason for the injury or death of the specie.
INVESTIGATION
The very first thing during identification is visit to the scene of occurrence. In wildlife forensics , the crime scene depends upon the type of crime committed based on which the type of evidences to be collected are also decided. In the beginning , preservation of the crime scene is to done and accordingly collection of evidences admissible begins. Scene recording is an important aspect so keep the evidences intact and to cross check for any left over evidence.
Fingerprints found on the crime scene of significant importance[3] , enabling us to reach to the perpetrator. The fibers, hair and fur could be found on the crime scene. As per Locard’s Mutual exchange principle trace evidences would always be transferred while crime commission and either an animal fur found in possession of the suspect or vice-versa plays an important role.
While talking about trace evidences, tyre marks, instrument marks play another significant role in identification. The direction of the skid marks could not only tell us about the whereabouts of the perpetrator but also the speed at the time of incidence ruling out the chances of an unfair trial.
Forensic palynology encorporated while examining the pollens in the suspect’s possession rules out the chances of his denial of not being on the crime scene due to the specimen specific nature of pollen.
Identification procedure could be categorized as, visual identification , genetic identification and identification on the basis of chemical characters.
A. IDENTIFICATION ON THE BAISIS OF MORPHOLOGY: Morphological characters are taken into consideration. This is the most simple approach applied while identifying a specie under question. Visual identifications has a lot of advantages if understanding of the specie to be examined is present it leads to positive identification upto specie level. However, the implementation of the technique is inadmissible due to its subjectivity based on environmental and surrounding conditions. Visual examination could not be done in the cases where there is limited data available about the reference sample.
B. GENETIC IDENTIFICATION: Identification on the basis of it’s genetic characters is not a new . Here while considering wildlife forensics it is a bit different; the question that is the specie under question to be protected is answered here. The various techniques encorporated while DNA barcoding includes PCR,RFLP and AFLP. Mitochondrial DNA is used for comparison due to lesser variability.
C. CHEMICAL IDENTIFICATION: Identification on the basis of the specimen is done on the basis of their biochemical characteristics; including the protein level, amino acid , lipids ,phosphate level in the individual. This method also has a limited usage due to a low reference bank . bomb curve dating method[4] could also be encorprated in the cases involving ivory so as to know the exact time of death.
Though the techniques are enhancing day by day so as to make investigations speedy and errorless. But still , the increasing wildlife crime rate is a significant concern . Amendments are required in the current laws so as to reduce the chances of animal abuse.
REFERENCES:
1. Wildlife Crime and Animal Victims: Improving Access to Environmental Justice in Hong Kong. (2020). Retrieved 4 July 2020, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13880292.2019.1677055?scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=uwlp20
2. KUMAR, N., YADAV, V., & YADAV, A. (2020). WILDLIFE FORENSIC : CURRENT TECHNIQUES AND THEIR LIMITATIONS. Retrieved 21 June 2020, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319136233_'Wildlife_Forensic_Current_Techniques_and_their_limitations'_has_been_accepted_for_publication
3. TRAFFIC | Wildlife forensics. (2020). Retrieved 21 June 2020, from https://www.traffic.org/what-we-do/projects-and-approaches/wildlife-conservation-technology/wildlife-forensics/
4. BUNK, S. (2020). Forensics Fights Crimes Against Wildlife. Retrieved 20 June 2020, from https://www.the-scientist.com/research/forensics-fights-crimes-against-wildlife-56064
Author: This is Isha BSc Forensic Science Student from Amity university, noida. She has presented posters as well as papers in many national and international conferences and She has interested to work in the field of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Anthropology in future.
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