Unabated pangolin poaching could endanger forest land in Chhattisgarh, says Wildlife expert

According to Wildlife expert Nitin Singhvi, pangolins are found in the forest area of ​​Chhattisgarh, but their number has decreased a lot in the recent past. This can cause great damage to the forests as pangolins have a crucial contribution in keeping the forests safe, Singhvi said. He said that the pangolins eat ants and termites, which otherwise hollow the ground damaging the trees and plants in the forests.

Raipur: The large-scale poaching of the pangolins, a threatened species declared by an international body, could endanger the forest areas in the state given its crucial role in maintaining the ecosystem, a wildlife expert has said.

According to Wildlife expert Nitin Singhvi, pangolins are found in the forest area of ​​Chhattisgarh, but their number has decreased a lot in the recent past. This can cause great damage to the forests as pangolins have a crucial contribution in keeping the forests safe, Singhvi said. He said that the pangolins eat ants and termites, which otherwise hollow the ground damaging the trees and plants in the forests. “If there are no pangolins, then there will be heavy damage to the forest and the trees and plants there,” he added.

In this context, the increasing poaching of the species could pose a major threat to the forest land in Chattisgarh. According to officials, more than two dozen incidents of poaching of pangolins have come to the fore in the last two years. The species is in high demand in the international market, especially for its food and medicinal value in China and Vietnam. Besides, the scales of pangolins also sell in lakhs in the international market.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), pangolin trafficking alone accounts for 20 percent of the illegal smuggling of wildlife around the world. Therefore, the IUCN has included the pangolin in its Red List of Threatened Species. In India, it has been kept in Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 making it illegal to kill and smuggle pangolins.

Notwithstanding the efforts at the international level including in India, the poaching of the threatened species is continuing unabated in Chattisgarh even as the state Forest Department has been running campaigns from time to time to stop the illegal practice.

On January 27, 2020, two smugglers with four dead pangolins were arrested in Kumhari, adjacent to the capital Raipur. Four smugglers were arrested on July 8 last year with a pangolin from a sports utility vehicle at Boir village check post of Khallari police station area of ​​Mahasamund district. They had made a deal with a person from Raipur to sell the animal for Rs 13 lakhs.
On September 16, a team of Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Jabalpur arrested the SI of CISF with three and a half kilos of pangolin scales near Jaistambh Chowk in Raipur. Accused Jitendra Poche was posted at Raipur airport. On December 18, n the Kanker district, six car-borne people were arrested and about 53 kg of pangolin scales were recovered from them.
Recently. On February 11, 19 kg pangolin scales were recovered from a smuggler during a joint action of the forest department and police force in Jagdalpur.