Pangolin Replaces Gecko In Priority List!

GUWAHATI: It remains a mystery as to why international smugglers trafficking wild animals from Northeast India to China are now going more for pangolin than for gecko. In a major shift – pangolin has replaced gecko in the priority list of smugglers, purely based on profit.

Wildlife from Northeast India goes to China via the Dimapur-Moreh-Myanmar transit route. Gecko had always been topping the list of smugglers’ priorities, based on its medicinal and market value in China. However, according to WCCB (Wildlife Crime Control Bureau) sources, of late pangolin is more in demand in China than gecko. They say that pangolin’s scale is an important ingredient in several traditional medicines in the neighbouring country. Even as gecko is well known for its medicinal value in China, of late pangolin is in more in demand in the neighbouring country. Details – as to the traditional medicines and the end users of such the medicines in China – are still obscure.

Because of its newfound importance, the smuggling of pangolin to China from Northeast India has been on the rise. According to a WCCB source, its sleuths have caught as many as six pangolins while being trafficked to China since October last year. A pangolin each was caught from Rangiya, Maligaon, Sonapur and Lokhra in Guwahati, and two pangolins were caught from Boko in Kamrup. The people involved in the transit were arrested. However, all the people arrested by the sleuths are middlemen who have taken the animals from their capturers for selling them to agents.

In the latest seizure of a pangolin from Lokhra in Guwahati on June 20, 2019, two persons from Arunachal Pradesh and a middleman from Meghalaya were caught. One of the agents hailing from Nagaland, however, gave WCCB sleuths the slip.

In India two varieties of pangolin – an Indian variety and a Chinese variety – are found. Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya (especially Tura), Karbi Hills and some other places in Assam are natural habitats of both the varieties of pangolin.

Also Read: Wildlife Smuggling Check: Five Tokay geckos Recovered by Guwahati Police