Illegal Trade of Chinese Pangolin Manis pentadactyla in Assam, North East India
Creators: name: Thapa, Monish Kumar
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Chinese Pangolin, Illegal Trade, Superstitions, Assam, North East

description: The Chinese Pangolin (<em>Manis pentadactyla</em>) is native only to the north and north-eastern States of India. The Chinese pangolin is the globally critically endangered species under IUCN red list, and its distribution is known in Northeastern region of India and protected under Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 as Schedule I species. Chinese Pangolins are widely considered as the “World’s most trafficked mammal” due to demand in the national and international markets for its meat and scales. Major threats to pangolins in India include hunting and poaching for the use of local consumptive (e.g. as a protein source and an ingredient in traditional medicine), and are frequently found in illegal trade, both domestically and internationally. The information of illegal trade is limited and unreliable. This is partly because these species are widely distributed geographically, making it difficult to quantify hunting and poaching activities, localities and associated trends, and because illegal trade in pangolins is characteristically clandestine. This study aimed to review available information on recent illegal trade of Chinese Pangolins in Assam, India. In this study, we surveyed the illegal trade based on interviews with 110 individuals of local villagers, hunters and forest officials; field or market surveys and online data source and regional News Papers in different locations between 2018 and 2021. The Interviewed, stated that hunters hunt pangolins occasionally. Pangolin meat is used locally as we found that hunters largely targeted pangolins for their scales and important commercial gain for traditional use. The present survey found that February-March to May-June was reported most frequently to be the best time for hunting pangolins. Based on the results, we have recorded 18 numbers of poaching activity from Kamrup Metro (5), Kamrup Rural (2), Dhubri (2),<strong> </strong>Bongaigaon (2), Hojai (2), Chirang (2), Morigaon (1), Tinsukia (1), Karbi-Anglang (1) district and 1 number of Pangolin rescued from Biswanath District, Assam and also recorded from other North Eastern States of India, like, Meghalaya (1) and West Bengal (3) etc. between 2018 and 2021. From the result we found that most of the poaching activity reported from Kamrup Metro (5) because Guwahati city (Kamrup Metro) is the main hub and gateway of North East India. Therefore, most of the trading activities gone through the city. Based on the results from interviews and extensive field surveys we found that Pangolins mainly poached for Killed for lack of knowledge, for smuggling, for bush meat as food source, for traditional medicines and for superstitious believes and the scales are the most traded parts of pangolins in the region. The paper suggests that any mitigation strategy should focus on rural hunters. There is necessary to assess the socio-perspective of local communities and hunters on conservation of this ecologically important species, Chinese Pangolin to introduce community based conservation action plans which include grass-root activities that bring local community, the government departments and NGOs, to work together to achieve the conservation of Chinese Pangolins in Assam.