From Silver Owls, Starred Turtles to Sand Boas a number of rare animals, birds and mammals have for long been trafficked and sold in the international markets.
While some of theses creatures are believed to have magical powers others are sold ad exoctic pets. In some cases they are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Now wildlife investigators from India and Britain have uncovered an international racket which is selling dried penises of endangered monitor lizards as a plant root regarded as a good luck charm and used in religious rituals.
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The London-based group World Animal Protection said the dried penises of Bengal monitor lizards and yellow monitor lizards look similar to a rare plant root sought by people who believe it brings good luck.
Wildlife authorities conducted raids in five Indian states last month and some raids are continuing, said Neil D¡¯Cruze of WAP.
While the plant has all but disappeared from the Indian countryside, wildlife traffickers have been buying the dried lizard penises and fraudulently selling them online, said the Wildlife Trust of India in New Delhi.
During raids in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, several dozen hemipenis, or paired male reproductive organs of the lizards, were recovered, he said.
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¡°The dried lizard hemipenis looks like two hands joined in prayer and is similar to the ¡°hatha jodi¡± root that people believe can ward off evil. There is a widespread belief that it saves you from court cases,¡± Louies said.
Scientists at Manchester Metropolitan University in England have confirmed that various specimens of the ¡°magical¡± root were actually the dried hemipenis of monitor lizards, WAP said in a statement.
¡°These lizards are being illegally poached from the wild, caught in traps and snares. Some will have their throats slit or skulls smashed in before their genitals are removed,¡± it said.
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Wildlife activists said the volume of the item being sold online was huge.
¡°We were shocked at the sheer audacity and scale of the illegal wildlife trade,¡± D¡¯Cruze said. ¡°Deceitful traders claiming to sell holy plant root labelled as ¡®hatha jodi¡¯ are in fact peddling dried lizard penis to their unwitting customers.¡±