DRI seizes 45 live reptiles smuggled from Bangkok at Trichy airport
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized 45 live reptiles from two Indian passengers at Trichy International Airport on 26 October 2026. Working with the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU), Trichy, officers stopped the pair after their arrival from Bangkok via Colombo. The sedated animals lay hidden in 27 food packets. AIU, Trichy, arrested both under the Customs Act, 1962.
Syllabus: Prelims · Environment & Ecology; GS3 · Environment & Conservation; GS2 · Groupings & Agreements
Why this matters for UPSC
GS3 covers conservation and security agencies; Prelims can ask what the DRI is and does, what CITES Appendices I to III hold, and what Section 49M requires; Mains, how India curbs wildlife trafficking.
Why it matters
A family that keeps a pet python or iguana in India must register it with the State Chief Wild Life Warden if the species is listed in Schedule IV. An animal smuggled in sedated in luggage enters with no such record, and its health and origin are unknown. Each catch at an airport therefore stops one batch of unrecorded animals at the border. It also shows that customs officers at the border and wildlife wardens inside the country do one job between them: one stops the animal coming in, the other keeps track of those already here.
Prelims pointers
- CITES was opened for signature at Washington in 1973.
- CITES Appendix I holds species facing extinction that trade affects or may affect; trade in them is permitted in exceptional circumstances alone.
- CITES Appendix II covers species not necessarily threatened now but which may become so unless their trade is strictly regulated.
- A species enters CITES Appendix III when a Party regulates it within its jurisdiction and needs other Parties' cooperation to control its trade.
- Section 49N of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 requires a licence to breed in captivity any specimen listed in Appendix I of Schedule IV.
- The Wild Life Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) joins INTERPOL-coordinated operations worldwide and runs training for State Police and forest staff.
- Below its New Delhi headquarters, the DRI runs 12 zonal, 35 regional and 15 sub-regional units.
Practise a UPSC-style question
With reference to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), consider the following statements:
1. Its mandate includes preventing the smuggling of wildlife products and SCOMET items.
2. It functions as the anti-smuggling agency of the Central Board of Direct Taxes.
3. It also works to detect commercial frauds and customs duty evasion.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Show the answer
Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only
Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only. The DRI works under the board that handles customs, not direct taxes.
Statement 1: correct. The DRI's mandate covers smuggling of narcotics, gold, arms, wildlife products and SCOMET items, among others (PIB, Ministry of Finance, 2 Dec 2024).
Statement 2: incorrect. The DRI is the apex anti-smuggling agency of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC), not of the Central Board of Direct Taxes.
Statement 3: correct. Besides smuggling cases, the DRI unearths commercial frauds and instances of customs duty evasion (PIB, Ministry of Finance, 2 Dec 2024).
Eliminate: statement 2 swaps CBIC for CBDT, so it is false. Out: (a), (b), (d).
Trap: Swapped attribution. The question pins the DRI on the Central Board of Direct Taxes, a look-alike board in the same Department of Revenue that handles income tax.
Remember: Smuggling and duty evasion are customs matters, so the DRI sits under the CBIC.
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