Elephant smuggled from Nepal, trail points to NGO in leopard poaching probe

The NGO Wildlife SOS is currently under investigation for alleged involvement in leopard poaching and the purchase of an elephant from Nepal. Their CEO, Kartick Satyanarayan, is also in custody. The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) discovered chats referencing "Suraj Pal’s elephant" on the phone of one of the accused, Nazuddin Khan, which led to the probe.

Suraj Pal is reported to have purchased a female elephant that had been smuggled from Nepal. Wildlife SOS denies any knowledge of the chat records and claims that Suraj Pal was associated with them only up until 2016. The organization was also found to have rescued and aided in the seizure of a tiger skin, leopard skin, and tiger skeleton in Tamil Nadu's Nilgiris in 2023.