What most corporates don't realise is that it is a crime to kill any wild animal, with the exception of rats, mice, crows and fruit bats, says Ashok Kumar, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India and co-author of the book Wildlife Crime-An Enforcement Guide. The export and import of all wild animals and their parts and products (except shed peacock feathers) and almost 40 species of plants face some kind of ban, he says.

But the problem , he feels, that many pharmaceutical companies use many of these endangered plants (and their extracts) without being aware that they arebreaking the law. ``When most of these big companies have legal departments handling all their other cases, why can't these people look into the Wildlife (Protection) Act too,'' he asks.

The trade of shed deer antlers has been banned recently. It was banned in August, last year but because of requests from traders, the deadline was extended to March 31, this year. ``The trade in deer antlers runs into more than 300 tonnes valued at several crores of rupees. But when the traders are caught they feigned ignorance of the law and many times pay their way out of a case,'' points out Kumar.

Recently, a pharmaceutical company has introduced an injection for uterine cancer, Taxol, which is supposed to have extracts of Himalayan Yew. ``Now, the use of this plant and extracts of it have been banned for export and are on the negative list, but there has been no check on the company so far,'' says Kumar.

There are several examples of banned products being used in several products. ``Red sanders and jatamansi areboth banned herbs but are commonly found in several herbal cosmetics. Though these companies claim that they are not using these products in the export formulations, the environment ministry has not done a through check to see if they are actually using this product,'' says Kumar.

And it's not just companies, even their CEOs blatantly violate wildlife laws. A few years ago, a case was filed against United Breweries baron Vijay Mallaya for keeping two blackbucks in his Mumbai suburban farmhouse. ``Though the case was closed, some NGOs are now agitating to reopen the case against the liquor baron,'' points out Kumar.

Romesh Sharma, the alleged Dawood henchman in Delhi, has been booked under several cases. ``But the one foolproof case against him is that three tiger skins, a leopard skin and a cheetah skin were recovered from his Meharauli farmhouse,'' says Kumar.

Take the case of the Thapars five years ago at the Corbett National Park. One of the Thapars was booked for flying a helicopter over thereserved national park. Under the Wildlife (Protection ) Act flying over national parks is an offence. Another was caught with the carcass of a blackbuck in his vehicle outside the park. Though the cases have been closed against them, they had to face the courts for many years. ``Instead, if they had been aware of the laws, all these problems would not have arisen,'' says Kumar.

Many breweries use wood charcoal to distill beer but they don't realise that wood coal from forest vegetation is illegal, points out Kumar.

India is an exporter, importer and a conduit in the international wildlife trade which is estimated at $25 billion. And almost 70 per cent of the trade in wildlife is illegal, says Kumar. Recently, the environment ministry has taken notice of the loopholes in the law and it's slowly tightening them. ``For example, the ministry has set up special inter-departmental coordination cell with the secretary (environment and forests), as chairperson, special secretary (home), director CBI and thechairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes as members to control illegal trade in wildlife parts,'' points out a senior official in the environment ministry.With the tightening of the laws and the new committee being set up, the awareness of the illegal side of the trade may increase, and the trade may decrease.