Pangolin poaching
Context: The Odisha Forest department has stressed the need for stricter monitoring of social media platforms to check pangolin poaching and trading.
- During past few years, instances of pangolin poaching have been reported at regular intervals from different parts of Odisha.
- Investigations revealed that the accused were trading pangolin and scales online by forming WhatsApp groups in which videos and photos were shared with potential customers, often based outside the country, and details communicated in codes to conceal the transactions.
- Poaching is pushing the endangered species into extinction.
Pangolins
- Sometimes called scaly anteaters, they are the only mammals in the world to be covered in protective scales
- Their scales are made of keratin, the same material found in human fingernails
- Pangolins lap up ants and termites with their long sticky tongues
- The giant pangolin, found in the rainforests and grasslands of equatorial Africa, is the biggest, measuring up to 1.8m long and weighing up to 75lbs.
- The pangolin is said to be the most widely trafficked mammal in the world.
- Its scales are in high demand in Asia for use in traditional Chinese medicine, despite there being no medical benefit for their use, while its meat is considered a delicacy in some countries.
- India is home to two pangolin species – the Indian and the Chinese.
- While the former is found across the Himalayan foothills and southern India, the latter dwells in the north-eastern region of the country
- According to the laws of our land, both the Indian and the Chinese pangolin species are protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
- Poaching, trading or any other form of their exploitation would attract a prison term of three to seven years and a fine of not less than INR 10,000. Even internationally, their trade is prohibited under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) which lists the two pangolin species in Appendix II.
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