CHENNAI: Forest officials arrested two people when they attempted to sell pangolin scales near Coimbatore railway station on Monday.
Coimbatore district forest officer S Ramasubramanian told TOI that they had received specific information from the field operatives of the TRAFFIC, a wildlife crime prevention organisation and an arm of the World Wide Fund for Nature - India, and arrested K Manickam 34 and T Bhagyaraj 31.
Ramasubramanian said the duo had trapped pangolins from forest areas near Karamadai and Pillur villages. They brought two and half kilograms of pangolinscales and tried to sell them for Rs 1 lakh.
"The scales are said to have medicinal properties. This is one of the main reasons for which this harmless mammal is trapped and killed," he said.
The pangolins have been categorised under the Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Anyone indulging in poaching of this species on the first occasion will have to pay a penalty and undergo imprisonment. Repeated offence on this species may attract up to seven years of rigorous imprisonment with a penalty up to Rs 25,000.
Inquiries would be conducted to nab other people involved in the trade of pangolin scales, Ramasubramanian added.
