The Tamil Nadu Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (TNWCCB) has seized 14,000 paint brushes made of mongoose hair from Chennai, Coimbatore, and Madurai.
Mongoose is a protected species under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022. They prey on rodents, mice and other small animals, and are essential in saving food crops. As many as 7,800 brushes from Chennai, 3,200 from Coimbatore and 3,000 from Madurai were seized based on an intel received by the TNWCCB.
R. Kanchana, Director, TNWCCB, said the first seizure was made from Parry’s Corner in Chennai on August 21. Upon questioning the accused, it was known that more such brushes were being illegally sold in Coimbatore and Madurai. It was a chain operation from one place to another, Ms. Kanchana told The Hindu on Saturday.
Based on information from the accused in Madurai, officials intercepted a trade in Cumbum, where 120 brushes were found.
A total of six persons have been nabbed and remanded in judicial custody, said Ms. Kanchana, adding that many traders, including retailers or hardware shop-owners, and customers were genuinely unaware that the brushes were made of mongoose hair.
Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary, Departments of Environment, Climate Change, and Forests, said awareness campaigns would be conducted soon on the illicit trade of mongoose hair brushes and how to differentiate them from synthetic brushes.
As per the World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF India), about 50 mongoose are killed to get 1 kg of its hair, which is brutally plucked sometimes, even before the animal dies. Mongoose hair is known to be stiff and points steadily upwards in a brush. The tips of the brush are dark brown in colour with a cream or greyish centre and have dark colours near the roots, says WWF-India.
