New Delhi: In a bizarre incident, three persons were arrested in the Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh while trying to sell off a live pangolin, an endangered wild animal.
The joint teams of the Crime Branch of Police, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), and Forest Department of Jabalpur arrested the three accused people from the Manegaon intersection on the route from Lakhnadaun district headquarters on Friday, media reported.
The accused, who were the residents of the Khamaria village of Jabalpur, tried to sell off a living pangolin, weighing 8 kgs, which they found in the nearby Khamaria forest.
The Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) is a mammal belonging to the Pholidota family. They have sharp scales which are fully exposed once the mammal curves into a ball on sensing danger.
Also known as the scaly anteater, these animals pick up insects like ants, termites, and larvae with their sticky tongues that run longer than their bodies.
As one of the highest illegally trafficked animals in Asian and African markets, China and Vietnam are the highest pangolin buyers. They use its meat for consumption and the scales for medicinal purposes.
They are traded either in tons as frozen or alive and mixed with frozen fish or snakes as a disguise.
The current price of a live pangolin in the international market is estimated to be as high as Rs. 50 lakh to Rs. 1 crore.
In 2016, around 180 governments signed a treaty to protect pangolins from going extinct by ending all forms of legal trade.
According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF), trafficking of about 195,000 pangolins for their scales occurred in 2019.
(Avya Mathur)