We are concerned by how organised wildlife trafficking networks continue to operate with near impunity. Despite repeated arrests and rescues, the same individuals keep returning to plunder hills and forests while those behind the networks continue to elude accountability and even detection. According to a report by Prothom Alo, the animals rescued represent only a small fraction of the true scale of trafficking. In Dhaka alone, 2,080 wild animals—including slow lorises, tortoises, civets—as well as severed animal body parts were recovered in the first half of 2026. Traffickers run a supply chain from the forests of Chattogram and the CHT to safe houses in urban centres, including the capital. Some animals are also smuggled into India and Myanmar.
Clearly, there is a lucrative market sustained by trafficking networks exploiting weak law enforcement and painfully slow legal processes. This is best illustrated by the case of Emran Hossain. In June 2023, Emran fled a police raid in Chattogram’s Kolatoli, where two rare gibbons were being kept. Two months later, he was arrested in Bakalia for smuggling a bear cub. By October, his name surfaced again in connection with a hog badger rescue, and he fled once more. Nearly a year and a half later, in February 2025, he was arrested in Dhaka’s Matuail with 11 capped langurs. According to forest officials, Emran, who collected animals from hill forests for trafficking rings, repeatedly returned to the same crime after fleeing raids or securing bail. There have been many others like him.
This cycle of reoffending is enabled mainly by weak laws and a sluggish judicial process. In the Chattogram region, over the last five years, 3,650 wild animals have been rescued, while 96 cases have been filed against 63 accused. Yet only 30 have been arrested, charge sheets have been submitted in just 20 cases, and verdicts delivered in a mere two. Experts point to the relatively light punishments prescribed for offenders. Lengthy trials also allow the accused to secure bail easily, while the forest department itself operates with limited manpower and resources. The entire Wildlife Crime Control Unit has apparently just six officials, backed by only four divisional offices.
To break the trafficking networks exploiting these loopholes and inadequacies, the authorities must take more comprehensive measures and go after ringleaders, including financiers and transporters, rather than only low-level operatives. They must also undertake the judicial, legal and administrative reforms necessary to make such efforts sustainable in the long term. Protecting wildlife is not merely about rescuing animals; we must ensure that those responsible face meaningful consequences.
