Maha becomes first state in India to have action plan to save Pangolins

Pangolin. File Pic

Maharashtra is set to be the first state in India to have a dedicated action plan for conservation of pangolins - the world's most trafficked animal.

Pangolins are listed in Schedule I of India's Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, implying the highest degree of protection. The principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF-wildlife) recently got approval from the state for its proposal to form a study group to prepare a five-year conservation action plan for pangolins. "We have been informed that the proposal has been accepted," said Nitin Kakodkar, PCCF-wildlife, reports Hindustan Times.

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"The committee will look into aspects such as population estimation, distribution, habitat protection and most importantly, illicit trafficking hotspots. Unlike tigers and leopards, these are species that have never been in focus despite having a huge ecological role," he added.

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M Maranko, regional deputy director (west), Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), said, "Maharashtra will be the first state to have such a plan. People eat pangolin meat, their scales are valuable in the international market, and are kept by some as a sign of good luck or for superstitions allegedly involving witchcraft. This activates the illegal trade. Our mandate is to coordinate with states, collect intelligence and make the public and enforcement agencies aware."

Kakodkar said the proposal was planned based on a detailed proposal by Vishwas Katdare, member of the State Board of Wildlife and IUCN Species Survival Commission Pangolin Specialist group member. "Katdare has been actively working towards pangolin conservation in Ratnagiri for the past four years and will be a leading member of this committee," he said, adding the panel will be headed by additional principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife-west) Sunil Limaye and also include the WCCB, among other members.

"Stray cases of pangolin poaching are regularly being reported from Maharashtra. To address this, we need inputs from local people (primary data) to understand the trade and its channels. We need to understand whether it is happening at the local level or if there is an organised network (secondary data). There will be a special focus on Mumbai to check whether the city as a port is functioning as a hub for this trade," said Kakodkar.

Katdare, the founder of Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra (SNM), a non-profit operating for the past 26 years, has been studying the population using 40 camera traps and spreading awareness about pangolins across Ratnagiri. Over the past two years, 23 pangolins have been rescued by local people with help from SNM and the forest department. From October, SNM extended their research to Sindhudurg district. "Taking this in perspective, I submitted the proposal to the department to have a roadmap for protecting this species across Maharashtra where pangolins are distributed in maximum numbers along Konkan and Vidarbha. These mammals can survive in different types of habitats, and thus monitoring them is key," said Katdare.

Meanwhile, WCCB has seen six major cases of pangolin in Maharashtra in 2020. On June 10, six persons were arrested from Nanded and one from Pune where two live pangolins were rescued and on August 30 six persons were arrested at Satara with a live pangolin and items worth Rs. 1.10 lakh.

Maranko explained that based on interrogations with those involved in the trade, they found out that the modus operandi involved local villagers training hunting dogs to catch pangolins. "These dogs are weekly taken to forest areas where they track the scent of pangolins and lead villagers to their burrows. Once pangolins are caught, their scales are removed and sent to the supplier. Their meat is partially processed, consumed by local villagers, and also given to the dogs, which are made dependent on the pangolin meat to easily repeat the process," he said.

Experts welcomed Maharashtra's decision and said other states needed to follow it. "As long as the pangolin's habitat is protected along with strict control on illegal trade, we can have some hope for the species," said Aniruddha Mookerjee, consultant wildlife advisor, WildCRU, University of Oxford. While Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Odisha in central India are the major areas for pangolin trapping, the scales move to the north east for export, he explained. "The consumption of pangolin meat is much higher in the north eastern states. If states like Assam and Meghalaya can join the states in central India in creating a holistic plan for conservation of both the subspecies, it should have a far better chance of survival," said Mookerjee.

In February, a study by the South China Agricultural University identified pangolins as the potential intermediate host of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19). The study announced the discovery of a 99% genetic match between the new 2019-nCoV virus and a strain of the virus found in pangolins.

"We thought that after Covid-19, the trade would reduce but unfortunately in all probability it appears to be the same," said Saket Badola, head, TRAFFIC India, a wildlife trade monitoring group, adding, "There have been limited efforts to understand the population distribution and estimation for pangolins. We have been flagging this issue repeatedly. However, with interventions being introduced in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand doing a population estimation exercise with the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, and MP also involved in good work through targeted approaches, awareness among enforcement agencies is much more, and it is clear they are prepared."

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