NEW DELHI: Almost a week after TOI reported that e-retail website
Amazon was selling protected wildlife specimen and hunting snares online, the website has finally decided to take down close to 400 items from its offer list.
The move came after
Wildlife SOS
, an NGO, had started an
online signature campaign to prevent
Amazon from selling such items. After nearly 9,000 signatures accumulated, the e-retail giant decided to listen to the animal lovers who were repeatedly writing to the company. Legal representatives from the company also visited the NGO in Delhi.
"We appreciate the efforts of Wildlife SOS to bring these items to our notice.
Amazon India respects the efforts of organisations like Wildlife SOS to fight illegal wildlife trafficking. We are committed as a company to prevent misuse of our platform by unscrupulous wildlife traffickers. We will work closely with such organisations to ensure this is prevented always," said Rakesh Bakshi, legal director, associate general counsel of
Amazon India.
Amazon India has pulled down 296 items that were listed in the 'animal specimen' category and 104 items under the 'snarestraps' category.
"Our efforts eventually paid off when two senior legal representatives from
Amazon came to meet us at the Wildlife SOS headquarters in New Delhi. We gave a brief presentation to the visiting officials about wildlife crime in the country and the devastating effect this has on our natural heritage. They immediately agreed to begin taking down these items and have enlisted our help in identifying them," said Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder of Wildlife SOS.
The petition started after the NGO rescued a bear cub from a poacher's snare. The organisation started a search to identify all platforms where snares and traps were being sold and were shocked to discover them being sold on
Amazon.in, along with other wildlife specimen. Wildlife trophies such as rare sea shells, alligator heads, starfish, snake specimens along with trapping equipment like snares and leg hold traps were all available on the website, but the company assures they are working actively to remove any that may have been left on the website.