The latest seizure of 7.8 tonnes of frozen descaled pangolins and 1,800 kg of pangolin scales by custom authorities in China is indicating the extent of the pangolin threats in South East Asia and South Asia. The species is under tremendous threat due to sudden increase in demand of its meat and scales in Chinese traditional medicines.
One month back in an other important seizure Nepalese police had arrested chines, Nepalese and Indian citizens smuggling 480 kg of pangolin scales at Barabise, very near nepal-china border.
In India pangolin scales has recently been seized by customs at Guwahati airport along with tiger skull and bones. The consignments were being sent through railway mail service parcels to imphal.
The other major seizure reported in the Asian region in the last few years includes, seizure by Thai customs officers in the year 2007 when they rescued over 100 pangolins, as the animals were being smuggled out of the country, en route to China, where they were to be sold for cooking. In 2008, Vietnamese customs officials seized around 5 tons of pangolin meat. It was said that this meat came from 1,481 pangolins. Similarly in 2009, Malaysian police seized 40 live pangolins believed to have been brought illegally out of Indonesia.
Pangolins are hunted and eaten in many parts of Africa and are one of the more popular types of bush meat. As per the reports Pangolins are in great demand in China because their meat is considered a delicacy and some Chinese believe pangolin scales reduce swelling, promote blood circulation and help breast-feeding women produce milk.
International trade in Asian pangolin species is banned under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). Two of the four species are classified as Endangered by IUCN. Both the Chines pangolins and Indian pangolins are listed in Schedule I of Wildlife Protection Act 1972.
In the present scenario the demand of pangolins scales seems very high and since population of the species have drastically gone down in china and south east Asian countries, extreme pressure has been mounted on the Indian pangolin found in the country.
Photo credit/© EW / TRAFFIC
2 comments:
Dear Sir,
This is indeed tragic, and a symptom of a wider crisis - the enormous and continuing demand for wildlife products from China has already depleted much of South-East Asia of not just rhinos, tigers, elephants, wild cattle and large deer, but also of pangolins, otters, turtles... and is now increasingly turning toward India and Nepal. Because they are isolated and fragmented, Indian forests can be completely emptied even faster than those of SE Asia.
Perhaps one step toward stopping wildlife smuggling would be to use sniffer dogs in airports and border crossings? Trained dogs have successfully been used to sniff luggage for illegal bushmeat in New York and London airports.
yes use of sniffer dogs is possible at airports to a great extent but i dont thing it is a practical solution for our porous international borders.
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