Even as wildlife conservationists share a moment of hope and joy as the move to transfer all the eight pangolin species including two found in India from Appendix II to Appendix I – thus prohibiting any international commercial trade in pangolin parts, they feel its time to create a mass awareness about the lesser known yet the most illegally trafficked mammal.
The elevation in its status was a result of voting conducted on September 28 during the 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP 17) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Johannesburg.
Infact the Asian proposal was introduced during the voting by India as the need was felt to protect the most illegally traded mammal in the world from further exploitation
Pangolins are small to medium size, scale-covered, extremely shy mammals found across India but their distribution is not very well known. There are a total of eight species, four in Asia – of which the Indian Pangolin and the Chinese Pangolin are found in India.
Sources who work on gathering information on wildlife crimes said Maharashtra was well known for pangolin poaching. "The Western Ghats including the Konkan area is notorious for killings. Poachers are known to approach the local villagers and ask them to help locate the pangolin burrows for a good sum in return," said the source.
Dr Shekhar Kumar Niraj, head of TRAFFIC India — a wildlife trade monitoring network stated "Its a very important and positive move as now countries will be legally bound to take action but at the same time one has to understand that the price tag of the pangolins will only rise due to its high demand and the new protection status. Hence now the forest department will have to be even more alert and equip themselves." However it is important to create awareness as pangolins are as vulnerable to poaching as Tigers, Elephants and Rhino's.
"Pangolins are smoked or dug out of their burrows and dipped into boiling water to extract the scales. Poachers, who are contacted by traffickers, lure local tribals to locate the animal about which there is little public knowledge," said a forest official adding that the Pangolin scales were used in traditional Asian medicines and their meat was valued as a delicacy.
Dr MK Ranjitsinh, Chairman Emeritus of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) shared that CITES was not enough. "Illegal trade in pangolin parts must now be considered on par with rhino horn by enforcement authorities and NGOs," he said adding that the extent of illegal trade in pangolins can drive them to extinction in India.
