Wildlife SOS Under Scanner: Nepal Elephant Smuggling Trail Surfaces in Poaching Probe
Wildlife SOS faces scrutiny over an alleged Nepal elephant purchase and a leopard poaching probe involving two of its employees.
Elephant smuggling trail emerges
Wildlife SOS, already in the crosshairs of a leopard poaching investigation in Madhya Pradesh, now faces questions over an alleged live elephant trade dating back four years. Records of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) indicate a possible link between the NGO and a female elephant reportedly smuggled in from Nepal.
In March 2022, the WCCB arrested three men in Jaipur with roughly 30 kg of ivory. During interrogation, one of the accused claimed that a Mathura resident, Suraj Pal, who was described as associated with an Agra-based NGO, had purchased a female elephant brought in from Nepal. The phone of another accused reportedly contained chats with a contact saved as "SOS.Baigo.Agra", in which the contact referred to "Suraj Pal's elephant" and stated that "Kartick sir" had been kept informed.
That number, it has emerged, belongs to Baiju Raj, director of conservation at Wildlife SOS, which runs bear and elephant rescue facilities in Agra and Mathura. Suraj Pal has worked at these facilities as an elephant keeper since 2011.
Denials and distance
Kartick Satyanarayan, CEO of Wildlife SOS, said he had no knowledge of the purported chat records and was therefore unable to verify or comment on them. He described the narrative as concocted and driven by individuals with a personal vendetta. Baiju Raj also denied knowledge of the chats and said he was not aware of Nazuddin Khan, one of the arrested men.
In an email, Wildlife SOS stated that Suraj Pal was associated with the organisation only until 2016, when his employment was terminated, and that it could not comment on his activities after his departure. However, the NGO's website still carries a page dated August 21, 2025, featuring Suraj Pal as its elephant keeper.
The smuggling chain
The WCCB arrests on March 13, 2022, involved UP Police sub-inspector Nazuddin Khan, his son Gulam Khan and an accomplice, Nashir Ali. According to case records, the chats referring to "Suraj Pal's elephant" were found on Nazuddin Khan's phone. Ali told investigators that he had smuggled a 35-40-year-old female elephant through the Hathiheva border in Nepal to Kakrawa in Uttar Pradesh's Kushinagar during the first Covid lockdown in 2020.
Ali's interrogation records state that the elephant belonged to Ramesh Khatola, a hotel owner in Sauraha, Nepal, who sold her to Dinanath Verma in Kushinagar for Rs 40 lakh. Verma then allegedly sold the animal to Suraj Pal for Rs 70 lakh. The three accused are out on bail and the trial is pending.
A former WCCB official said the agency may have been unaware that Pal worked for Wildlife SOS and may have inadvertently dropped leads that could have pointed to cross-border smuggling. The case officer declined to comment, and the WCCB did not respond to requests for comment.
Wider scrutiny
The development comes amid a separate probe by the Madhya Pradesh State Tiger Strike Force, which last month arrested two Wildlife SOS employees, Bhagwan Singh alias Salim and his accomplice Wasim, for their alleged role in poaching 10 leopards in the Shivpuri-Morena landscape. Satyanarayan has failed to appear before investigators on three occasions and sought protection from arrest. On September 21, the Supreme Court granted him interim protection and directed him to appear before investigators on September 28.
Wildlife crime investigators have also raised questions about the NGO's rescue and anti-poaching methods. A senior UP forest officer said there had been strong circumstantial evidence on a few occasions but never a smoking gun. Allegations that poachers collected bear cubs from the wild on behalf of Wildlife SOS have been known to agencies since at least 2007, according to former investigators. Leads were pursued in Odisha, Jharkhand and along the Nepal border before they dried up.
The recent arrests have also revived questions over the 2023 seizure of a tiger skin, leopard skin and tiger skeleton in Tamil Nadu's Nilgiris. Wildlife SOS had claimed credit for assisting the seizure and the subsequent sentencing of poachers, while sources in the Tamil Nadu Forest department said Singh and Wasim were allegedly present in the Sathyamangalam forest area when the seizure and arrests took place.