Nagpur: Ayurvedic medicine trader held with copulatory organs of monitor lizard

NAGPUR: Continuing its crackdown against wildlife criminals, Nagpur forest division officials have arrested a city ayurvedic medicine trader for possessing 18 ‘hatha jodi’ (dried copulatory organs of monitor lizards), 11 sea fans and four sandfish skinks.
This means that the people who supplied the parts to the trader must have killed 18 monitor lizards.It is not known from whom the shop owner Mayur Madhusudan Gupta (33), who was arrested and booked under various sections of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), 1972, procured the material.
Monitor lizards are listed under Schedule I of the WPA. Similarly, sea fans are invertebrate organisms that grow in a fan-like pattern and are found in shallow and warm waters around reefs. Sandfish skink (Scincus scincnus) is also a lizard that lives in sand burrows.
The accused was remanded to one day of forest custody (FCR) till Wednesday. For the court, this was the first such case coming before it.
Monitor lizard poaching invites the same section of the law as tiger poaching. Sandfish skink, however, is not listed under the WPA, as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature checklist, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora requires a source and ownership certificate. Besides, sea fans are also listed under Schedule I.
Assistant conservator of forest Narendra Chandewar initiated the action following a tip-off on Monday. Forest officials posed as decoy customers and raided Shivshankar Agencies, Sitabuldi, and confiscated the material.
Chandewar said, “In the recent years, illegal trade of alleged ‘plant root’ locally known as hatha jodi (meaning pair of arms) has increased multifold in several parts of India. These roots actually represent the dried and partly stained copulatory organs of monitor lizards.”
Hatha jodi is used for diverse superstitious beliefs, witchcraft and black magic. On the other hand, the early utilization of monitor lizards dates back to at least 10,000 years ago, when monitor lizard body parts had several applications in traditional Indian medicines.
Nagpur deputy conservator of forests Bharat Singh Hada said there are irrational myths and beliefs that oil obtained from the body fat of monitor lizards is used to treat failing eyesight, thorn pricks or bites from venomous animals. “It is also considered useful for treating tuberculosis, skin problems and sexual debility,” Hada added.