Tipping the scales

Small, nocturnal and a harmless mammal covered in scales… precious little is known about the pangolin; even rough estimates of the animal’s numbers in India are unavailable. What is clear is that huge numbers are being poached and sold across the border in far-eastern countries.

In fact, in 2015 the pangolin was the most poached and trafficked animal in India — Traffic, an international body which detects wildlife crime, documented the seizure of more than 4,300 kg of scales in the past five years. Not just in India, the humble pangolin is threatened globally too — anywhere between 100,000 and one million animals are believed poached in the last 15 years, based merely on the number of scales seized worldwide.

According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), there is virtually no population record for any of the eight known pangolin species. Their secretive, solitary and nocturnal habits have ensured that the pangolins are among the least observed or researched species.

Pangolins are reportedly being hunted because their scales are used in Chinese medicine, much like the demand for tiger bones and rhino horns had driven those animals to near-extinction. Smuggling routes thread through India, Nepal, Myanmar and Bhutan, bringing animal parts to China.

“In 2015, we have seen the scales getting smaller, 10-15 g on average. A fully-grown pangolin’s scales weigh 50-60g. This shows that smaller animals are being poached, and will definitely impact the species,” says Shekhar Niraj, a member of Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring network.

The IUCN, which tracks threatened species worldwide, recently bumped up the status of the pangolin to ‘critically endangered’, a step away from ‘extinct’. Since 2011, the third Sunday of February has been designated as Pangolin Day to raise awareness about this endangered animal.

All four pangolin species in Asia — the Chinese, Sunda, Indian and Philippine — have been declared endangered or critically endangered. The four African species — Cape, White-bellied, Giant Ground and Black-bellied — are deemed vulnerable. What adds to the worry is the fact that these animals are easy to hunt, have a slow reproduction rate and do not breed easily in captivity.

In northeast India, there are signs that militant groups have turned to the lucrative trade in wildlife parts. “As the pangolins are found outside protected areas, in reserve forests, tea estates and farmland, it is tougher to protect them. Also, the government machinery is mostly focussed on big animals (like the tiger and rhino),” says Biplab Talukdar from Aaranyak, an environmental organisation.

The very networks that were poaching the tiger, leopard and rhino have now put the pangolin in their crosshair. “There has been a 500 per cent increase in the price of pangolin scales in the last three to four years,” says Niraj. Poaching networks cut across states and even international borders.

In India, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) is tasked with gathering intelligence related to organised wildlife crime and share it with the respective state police and forest officials. In 2005, the bureau was able to break up an interstate wildlife trade network and arrest several poachers who were supplying a group of middlemen and traders. In 2015, another network that was busted was found to be made of the same traders and middlemen, and a newer team of poachers. The recent arrest of 75 people from eight states, coordinated by the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department’s Special Task Force, was a major success for the country’s besieged wildlife protection force.

Some states like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have been more effective in curbing organised illegal trade, while others such as Karnataka and Uttarakhand have shown greater enthusiasm in enforcing the law. “We have to ensure that wildlife protection is not just for big animals. Wildlife crimes pose a threat to national security, directly and indirectly, and should be treated as such,” says Talukdar.

Traditionally, tribal groups have hunted the pangolin for food.

“I visited a tea estate in Darjeeling where I came across pangolin burrows. Tea garden workers fill the burrows with water and trap the pangolin when it emerges out. Eating of pangolins is common here,” says Biswajit R Choudhury, Secretary, Nature Environment and Wildlife Society.

Niraj points out that while the hunting of pangolins by tribals was a traditional way of life, what is endangering the animal’s survival is the poaching for trade.

Moreover, the odds are stacked against the enforcing authorities — after months spent tracking the poachers and finally arresting them, they are released on bail within days.

As Tilottama Verma, additional director WCCB says, “We are trying to save silent, nameless victims who can never speak for themselves; it is almost impossible to track an illegally killed animal to its source.” The scales are clearly tilted against the pangolin for now.

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