INDIA: Pangolin Poaching Racket With International Links Busted

Forest officials on Friday claimed to have busted a pangolin poaching racket with possible international links in Erode, with the arrest of three poachers hailing from Coimbatore.

In a joint operation, forest personnel from Coimbatore and Erode have seized 500gm of pangolin scales and detained five other poachers from Coimbatore.

A team has, meanwhile, left for Chennai to nab the kingpin of the gang, identified as Ravikumar. He is suspected to have illegally exported pangolin scales to China.

Indian pangolins are an endangered species and are given highest level of protection by including them in Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.

Forest officials said the racket was involved in poaching of Pangolins for the past five years in Coimbatore and Sathyamangalam forest divisions. The gang sold pangolin scales to Ravikumar, who then exported the same to buyers in China. Pangolin scales are considered to have medicinal properties and are also used as fashion accessory.

The arrested three have been identified as J Ezhumalai, 36, M Rangan, 37, both hailing from Karamadai, and Y Ponnaian, 37, of Thudiyalur in Coimbatore district. They have been booked under sections 39, 44 and 48 (b) of Wild Life (protection) Act 1972.

According to forest department sources, the trio used to visit villages located near the forest boundaries in the garb of vegetables traders. They then befriend a few villagers and share with them their mobile phone numbers, requesting to inform them about pangolin movement in nearby forests.

"The villagers were paid a meagre amount for the information. Some of the villagers would also trap pangolins and inform the gang,'' a forest officer said.

The trio would visit the villages and buy the trapped pangolins for Rs1,000 or Rs1,500. "They would then kill the pangolins, use the meat for food and sell the scales for around Rs15,000 to Sivakumar,'' the officer said. Often, they also sold the meat.

"The scales would be couriered to Ravikumar in Chennai. Initial questioning has revealed that he would send them to China for an exorbitant amount,'' a senior officer said.

K Kalidasan, president of OSai, an environmental NGO, said unless the government takes concerted steps to control the mafia, poaching with not end. "Villagers are just pawns,'' he said. While appreciating the government for focusing on tiger and elephant conservation, Kalidasan said, "But smaller species also face threat. Laws should be made more stringent and their enforcement strict."