The Networks Behind the Trade: Key Traffickers
Named individuals in the leopard and big cat trafficking network
The leopard trafficking crisis is not an abstraction. It is the product of specific human decisions, made by specific people operating within specific networks — networks that span national borders, that persist across decades, and that have correctly calculated that the legal consequences of their actions are manageable. The following profiles document individuals whose roles in the transnational big cat parts trade are matters of public record, court documentation, or verified enforcement reporting.
This section will expand as investigations develop. Further profiles are forthcoming.
A note on sourcing and legal status
Every profile on this page rests on confirmed public sources: court records, enforcement agency releases, verified media reporting, and INTERPOL documentation. Where individuals have not been convicted of specific charges — or where cases are ongoing — that status is clearly stated. The distinction between confirmed fact and allegation is maintained throughout. Blood of the Leopard does not publish unverified claims about named individuals.
SANSAR CHAND
The Benchmark Case
Sansar Chand is covered in full on the main Blood of the Leopard page, where his four-decade operation — the most extensively documented wildlife trafficking case in Indian history — is examined in detail. The key figures from his case are recorded here as the reference point against which all subsequent leopard trafficking cases are measured.
[Read the full Sansar Chand case study on the main Blood of the Leopard page →]
| Key figure | Detail |
|---|---|
| Operation span | 1974–2014 — four decades |
| Leopard skins admitted | 2,130 — CBI interrogation, 2006, four buyers only |
| Leopard skins in 11 months | 400 — Rajasthan Police diaries, 2004 |
| Total leopards estimated | 3,000+ |
| Convictions before significant sentence | 15 times |
| Court cases | 100+ across nine Indian states |
| Base of operations | Sadar Bazar, Old Delhi |
| Primary corridor | India → Nepal → Tibet → China |
| Status | Deceased — died Tihar Jail, New Delhi, 2014 |
YANGCHEN LACHUNGPA
The Eastern Corridor — Alleged Relay Principal, Arrested 2 December 2025
Status: Arrested. Bail rejected. Awaiting trial, Narmadapuram, Madhya Pradesh.
Legal note: Yangchen Lachungpa stands accused and pre-trial. She has not been convicted of the charges in this case. Every characterisation of her role derives from India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the INTERPOL case record, and a co-accused confession — all of which are allegations pending trial at Narmadapuram. Blood of the Leopard records the documented facts of the case and the enforcement actions taken. The verdict belongs to the court.
The arrest of Yangchen Lachungpa on 2 December 2025 is one of the most significant wildlife trafficking enforcement actions in recent South Asian history — not because of its scale but because of what it represents: a decade-long investigation, a cross-agency operation, an INTERPOL Red Notice that produced a result, and a bail rejection that held.
Lachungpa is accused of operating as a significant relay point in a transnational wildlife trafficking network linking India’s tiger source areas through the eastern Himalayan corridor to markets in Nepal, Tibet, and China. She is, according to India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, a key member of an organised transnational trafficking network. She is also the first female principal to be publicly identified in this tier of the South Asian big cat trade.
The case — confirmed record
On 13 July 2015, the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department registered a case in the Kamti Range of Satpura Tiger Reserve, Hoshangabad (now Narmadapuram): poaching and illegal trade of tiger body parts and pangolin scales. Seized: four tiger bone pieces, 1.5 kg of pangolin scales, a tiger skin, and tiger bone oil extract.
In October 2015, co-accused Jai Tamang was arrested. He confessed that he had supplied wildlife contraband to Lachungpa, that she had sheltered him, and — per the INTERPOL case summary — that her mobile phone was used to facilitate the trade. The ministry cited his confession as establishing her alleged role in the trafficking chain.
She was briefly arrested on 15 September 2017 by the Madhya Pradesh State Tiger Strike Force and released on bail by a court in East Sikkim. She then violated her bail conditions and absconded. A fresh arrest warrant was issued on 29 July 2019.
On 20 December 2022, 27 of the 36 people named in the original case were convicted by the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Narmadapuram. Proceedings against Lachungpa did not take place — she was still absconding.
An INTERPOL Red Notice for prosecution was issued on 2 October 2025, at India’s request, through the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and the CBI.
On 2 December 2025 — more than ten years after the original case was registered — she was arrested at Lachung, North Sikkim, by a joint operation involving the MP State Tiger Strike Force, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Sikkim Police, the Forest Department, the district administration, and the SSB. She was produced before the court in Gangtok on 3 December 2025. Bail was rejected. Transit remand to Madhya Pradesh was granted. Her trial will proceed at Narmadapuram.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 13 July 2015 | Satpura Tiger Reserve case registered — tiger parts and pangolin scales |
| October 2015 | Co-accused Jai Tamang arrested; confesses her alleged role |
| 15 September 2017 | Briefly arrested by MP STSF; bailed by East Sikkim court |
| 29 July 2019 | Fresh arrest warrant — bail violation and absconding |
| 20 December 2022 | 27 of 36 named convicted at Narmadapuram; Lachungpa not tried (absconding) |
| 2 October 2025 | INTERPOL Red Notice issued at India’s request (WCCB via CBI) |
| 2 December 2025 | Arrested at Lachung, North Sikkim — joint MP STSF / WCCB / Sikkim Police operation |
| 3 December 2025 | Produced in court, Gangtok — bail rejected, transit remand to Madhya Pradesh |
| 2026 | Trial pending, Narmadapuram |
The network — alleged
According to the Ministry of Environment and the INTERPOL case record, Lachungpa’s network operated across Delhi, Siliguri, Gangtok, Kolkata, Kanpur, Itarsi, and Hoshangabad — with transboundary links toward Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan. The INTERPOL record cites co-accused who were arrested in Nepal, though their identities and current status are matters of ongoing investigation.
Her alleged role is that of a coordinator and relay point — insulated from direct handling of contraband, operating through mobile communications and a network of suppliers and couriers. This is the same operational pattern documented across the South Asian big cat trafficking network: those who manage the most information carry the least physical exposure.
The corridor she is alleged to have operated within is distinct from — and complementary to — the central Nepal corridor (Rasuwa/Kodari) documented in connection with other key traffickers. Where the central corridor moves parts north through Kathmandu toward Tibet, the eastern corridor moves through the Siliguri corridor and Gangtok toward the Sikkim–Tibet frontier and the Nepal–Bhutan borderlands. Together these two corridors describe a continuous Himalayan trafficking front feeding a single Tibet–China destination market.
| Key figure | Detail |
|---|---|
| Alleged operation base | Lachung, North Sikkim; Gangtok; Delhi |
| Alleged corridor | India (Satpura/MP) → Siliguri/Gangtok → Nepal/Tibet/Bhutan |
| Alleged commodities | Tiger parts (skin, bone, oil); pangolin scales |
| Alleged role | Coordinator and relay point — insulated from field handling |
| Original case registered | 13 July 2015 — Satpura Tiger Reserve, MP |
| First arrest | 15 September 2017 — bailed, absconded |
| INTERPOL Red Notice | 2 October 2025 |
| Arrested | 2 December 2025 — Lachung, North Sikkim |
| Bail status | Rejected — in custody awaiting trial |
| Trial | Pending — Narmadapuram, Madhya Pradesh |
| Legal status | Accused / pre-trial — not convicted in this case |
Why this case matters
Three dimensions make the Lachungpa case significant beyond its individual facts.
The enforcement success. The 2017 arrest and bail failure — East Sikkim court, bail granted, Lachungpa absconds — is the pattern documented repeatedly in South Asian wildlife crime prosecution. The 2025 outcome is different: INTERPOL Red Notice issued, arrest within two months, bail rejected. The same network tier, the same evasion playbook, a different result. The Lachungpa case is a rare documented instance of the system functioning as designed — and it required ten years, multiple agencies, and international enforcement tools to produce it.
The digital dimension. The official record’s citation of her mobile phone as an alleged trafficking facilitation tool is the clearest documentary confirmation yet of the digital-operational shift across the big cat trafficking network. The move from physical coordination to mobile communication has been assessed in multiple cases. Here it is explicit in an official enforcement record — confirmed, not merely inferred.
The pangolin dimension. Lachungpa’s case foregrounds pangolin scales alongside tiger parts — a reminder that the networks documented in Blood of the Leopard do not operate in single-species silos. The same corridors, the same couriers, the same buyers serve multiple species simultaneously. The leopard trafficking route is the pangolin trafficking route is the tiger trafficking route. Understanding one is understanding all three.
Further profiles forthcoming
Mission Leopard’s Key Traffickers investigation is ongoing. Additional profiles documenting individuals whose alleged or confirmed roles in the leopard and big cat trafficking network are matters of public record will be published in this section as investigations reach an appropriate stage.
The Networks Behind the Trade: Key Traffickers is part of Blood of the Leopard — a living document published by WildTiger/Mission Leopard. Updated as cases develop and investigations progress.
wildleopard.net · wildtiger.org