New Delhi An international wildlife offender wanted under an INTERPOL Red Notice has been apprehended by the Madhya Pradesh State Tiger Strike Force in a coordinated operation with the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, the environment ministry announced on Friday.
Following persistent intelligence operations and well-coordinated ground action, Yangchen Lachungpa was apprehended on December 2 in Lachung, North Sikkim.

According to the ministry, Lachungpa is a prominent member of an organized trafficking network that operates in various Indian cities, including Delhi, Siliguri, Gangtok, Kolkata, Kanpur, Itarsi, and Hoshangabad, and has connections to Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan.

According to the ministry, Lachungpa is a prominent member of an organized trafficking network that operates in various Indian cities, including Delhi, Siliguri, Gangtok, Kolkata, Kanpur, Itarsi, and Hoshangabad, and has connections to Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan.
According to the report, this is one of the biggest wildlife-crime arrests in the nation connected to an INTERPOL Red Notice.
On October 2, the WCCB, serving as India's INTERPOL Liaison Office, obtained the Red Notice for Lachungpa.
According to the ministry, due to increased public sentiment, the Sashastra Seema Bal in Sikkim and Siliguri offered secure transit support, and the Sikkim Police, the forest department, the judiciary, and the district administration all actively cooperated in the operation.

On December 3, officials brought Lachungpa before an appropriate court after transporting her to Gangtok for a required medical examination.
The ministry stated that additional hearings will take place in Narmadapuram after the court denied her request for bail and issued transit remand to Madhya Pradesh.
On July 13, 2015, the Madhya Pradesh forest department filed a complaint about poaching and the illicit sale of pangolin scales and tiger body parts in the Kamti area of the Satpura Tiger Reserve in Hoshangabad.
Four pieces of tiger bones, 1.5 kg of pangolin scales, tiger skin, and tiger bone oil extract were among the seizures.

According to the government, Jai Tamang, another primary suspect who was detained in October 2015, admitted that he gave Lachungpa illegal wildlife and that she gave him a place to stay. Her place in the trafficking chain was clearly established by his admission.
On December 20, 2022, the chief judicial magistrate in Narmadapuram found 27 of the 36 individuals charged in the case guilty. Because Lachungpa was fleeing, there were no legal procedures against her.
Lachungpa was briefly detained by the MP STSF in September 2017, however she broke the terms of her bail and fled, leading to the issuance of an arrest order on July 29, 2019.
The WCCB requested an INTERPOL Red Notice from the Central Bureau of Investigation, India's National Central Bureau for INTERPOL, after she persisted in eluding officials.

According to the government, Lachungpa is a major hub for the international trafficking of wildlife contraband, particularly tiger parts, and additional research will reveal the network's backward and forward connections.