IWN Report — Wednesday, 11 November 2026
Raids in two states have led to six arrests and the seizure of around 300 pieces of a so-called lucky charm whose trade depends on mutilating protected monitor lizards, along with leopard claws, pangolin scales and a haul of other animal parts.
The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), a conservation organisation that tracks wildlife crime, reported on 1 November that the raids, which caught traders in a charm sold as Hatha Jodi, took place in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and Jaspur, Uttarakhand, between 18 and 26 October, and that its own staff had supplied the leads.
In Ahmedabad, the Gujarat Forest Department moved on 18 October after WTI verified and passed on information about someone allegedly dealing in leopard claws. Three people were arrested, and officers recovered 137 pieces of Hatha Jodi, four confirmed leopard claws, 115 more suspected ones, 31 pieces of pangolin scale and 11 sea fans sold as Indrajaal. They also found 45 pieces of what is suspected to be Siyar Singi, which WTI says is made from mongoose hair.
The Uttarakhand trail started online, when WTI’s monitoring of internet wildlife trade turned up an Instagram page advertising Hatha Jodi. WTI handed the details to Uttarakhand’s Special Operations Group, which arrested one person in Jaspur on 25 October with 114 pieces of Hatha Jodi, five pieces of Moti Shankh and a wild pig tusk.
That seller named the supplier they had been buying from, and a follow-up operation the next day brought two more arrests and another 49 pieces. According to WTI, the cases exposed a chain running from the people who gathered the items to the sellers who advertised them online.
Lizard Trade
Sellers pass Hatha Jodi off as a rare plant root shaped like a pair of clasped hands, promoted by holy men and occult practitioners as a charm for prosperity. WTI has identified it as the hemipenis of a monitor lizard, one of four species found in India, and says it is the Bengal monitor that gets collected for it.
When WTI and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) looked into the trade in 2017, they found it on open sale on Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, IndiaMart and Locanto, alongside cheaper fakes made from plastic, wheat flour or plaster of Paris.
Sources: Wildlife Trust of India (1 November 2026) · Wildlife Trust of India and IFAW (21 June 2017)