Airport staff get training to check wildlife smuggling

NEW DELHI: In order to curb wildlife smuggling through airports, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau today started special training of Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) staff, entrusted to scan check-in baggage.

As part of the training exercise for the first batch of about 30 DIAL staff, a team of three senior officials of the national wildlife crime watchdog provided them specific signatures of wildlife articles which can be identified during the scanning process.

"Every wildlife article has some key signatures which can be identified in special scanners used by airport security staff here. So we provided them with such signatures during the session. We also gave our manual to them which carries detailed information of species which are under threat," a WCCB official said.

There are about 300 personnel of DIAL who look after scanning services of check-in baggage at Indira Gandhi International Airport. In the first batch today nearly 30 officials were trained and soon WCCB plans to cover all of them in different session.

Sources said another session for different set of officials has been planned for tomorrow.

"Although no case of wildlife smuggling through airports has come to light in India but in Thailand there have been cases where tiger cubs, star tortoise have been discovered in the light. The training will help the staff to identify such articles during scanning," he said.

WCCB has been carrying out such sensitisation programmes for officials of CISF who look after hand-baggage checking and also of SSB which guards Indo-Nepal border. PTI ABS
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