IWN Dispatch — Friday, 24 July 2026
From a landmark trafficking bust to a Great Indian Bustard (GIB) chick surviving its most vulnerable weeks in Kutch, to rare sightings of Eurasian lynx and Himalayan musk deer — here is a selection of updates while IWN was away.
The biggest trafficking bust of the year — 440 animals, 33 arrests
The most significant wildlife enforcement story of the month came across a span of about ten days in early-to-mid July: a coordinated, intelligence-led crackdown spanning Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and India’s international airports that resulted in over 440 endangered or protected animals rescued, roughly 15 kilograms of ivory seized, and 33 people arrested.
The most striking single operation was a joint action on 7–8 July by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) Mumbai and the CBI’s Economic Offences Branch, with support from the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, across locations in Maharashtra and West Bengal. Officers recovered 115 slow lorises, 2 binturongs, 28 star tortoises, 6 Egyptian vultures, and 2 shikra birds — all Schedule I species under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Six accused were arrested. Separately, on 10 July, DRI officers intercepted a group near Sujangarh, Rajasthan, and recovered approximately 11 kilograms of elephant ivory. The geographic spread and multi-agency coordination make this one of the more substantial enforcement actions reported this year.
A note on slow lorises specifically: they are among the most heavily trafficked primates globally for the exotic pet trade — prized for their large eyes and slow movements, and among the first animals to go viral on social media. Captured lorises are routinely mutilated (teeth clipped) to make them easier to handle, and rarely survive long in captivity. Wild populations are declining across their range.
Great Indian Bustard: a chick survives its critical first 40 days
Great Indian Bustard. Photo: Prajwalkm. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
On 9 July, Gujarat’s Forest and Environment Minister announced that a Great Indian Bustard chick born on 21 May 2026 at Naliya in Kutch district had successfully cleared the first 40 days of its life — widely considered the most vulnerable period in the species’ early development. The chick was born under the second phase of the Jump Start initiative, in which a fertile egg from Rajasthan’s captive breeding programme was transported 770 km by road in a portable incubator and placed in a nest at the Naliya grassland, where only three female GIBs now survive (all without males).
The first Jump Start egg, announced in March 2026, marked the first GIB birth in Gujarat in over a decade. The 40-day survival milestone for the second egg is a more durable sign that the technique is replicable. The GIB remains Critically Endangered, with fewer than 150 individuals estimated in the wild. Wildlife biologist Sumit Dookia told The Federal: captive breeding and habitat conservation must go together — the chick gives reason for cautious optimism, not complacency.
Eurasian lynx photographed for the first time in Sikkim
Eurasian Lynx. Photo: Yajuvendraupadhyaya. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
In what is only the second photographic record of the species in the entire Eastern Himalayas, a camera trap deployed at 5,250 metres on the Tso Lhamo plateau in Mangan district captured the Eurasian lynx in January 2026, which was confirmed and published in July 2026 by the Sikkim Forest and Environment Department and WWF-India. For years, local Drokpa herders had spoken of a smaller cat with a short tail, distinct from the snow leopard, and given it their own local name. This photograph confirms it is still there. The first Eastern Himalayan photographic record was from Arunachal Pradesh in 2025; the Sikkim record, says WWF-India’s Dr Rishi Kumar Sharma, confirms the species has a broader range in these mountains than science previously understood.
Himalayan musk deer documented at Anini, Arunachal Pradesh
Himalayan Musk Deer. Photo: Surajit Das. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
The endangered Himalayan musk deer (Moschus leucogaster) was documented in the high-altitude terrain of Anini in Arunachal Pradesh’s Upper Dibang Valley district, as reported by The Telegraph India. The musk deer is Endangered on the IUCN Red List, listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, and heavily targeted by poachers for its musk gland — making any confirmed field sighting in a remote, intact habitat a meaningful conservation data point. A separate camera-trap image of a musk deer was also recorded in the Yordi Rabe Supse Wildlife Sanctuary in West Siang district earlier this year, the first such record for that sanctuary
Wild water buffalo return to central India after a century
Wild Water Buffalo. Photo: Joydeep Chakraborty. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
In what is being described as India’s longest-ever wildlife translocation, seven sub-adult Asiatic wild water buffaloes were captured from Kaziranga Tiger Reserve in Assam and transported over 2,000 km to Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh between March and April 2026 — with the animals reaching Kanha on 28 April and being released into a holding enclosure. A second batch has since followed. The wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee), listed as Endangered, last had a confirmed sighting in Madhya Pradesh in 1979. The programme, backed by the governments of Assam and Madhya Pradesh and the Wildlife Institute of India, aims to translocate around 50 buffaloes in phases, restoring the species to its historic central Indian grassland habitat and its ecological role in maintaining open landscapes.
Snow leopard strolls through Hikkim, Spiti Valley
Snow Leopard. Photo: Nazir Baig. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
A traveller walking on a road in Hikkim — the Himachal Pradesh village that houses the world’s highest post office — had a close encounter with a snow leopard walking casually alongside. The Telegraph India reported the footage. The sighting is consistent with a well-documented pattern of snow leopard presence near Hikkim and the wider Spiti Valley, where community stewardship and conservation efforts have contributed to a gradual recovery of the species’ population in the region.
Sources: Prakati.in · New Kerala · Insights on India · The Print · ProKerala / PTI · The Federal · Insights on India (Gir lions) · Hub Network · Notopedia · The Federal (Eurasian Lynx) · Tribune India · The Better India · The Telegraph India