Wildlife activists fear that if the poaching of pangolin continues at the present rate in the Terai region, the pangolin could be wiped out of Uttarakhand in the coming years. Seizures of pangolin scales and meat by the police and forest department have continued at an alarming rate. The Forest Department is talking of facilitating alternative employment for members of communities traditionally involved in poaching but nothing concrete has been done yet in this direction.
On January 4, the police Special Task Force had arrested a man with seven kilograms pangolin scales in the Herbertpur area. The seizure came a few days after stones were pelted on department staff who had raided a Sapera Basti at Mothrowala in Dehradun from where they had had seized about four kilogram pangolin meat. last year there were many cases of pangolin scales and meat being seized especially from members of Sapera community. According to TRAFFIC India, northern region team leader Dr Abhishek Singh, pangolins are being poached at an alarming rate in the Terai region of Uttarakhand, especially in Rajaji national park, Haridwar, Dehradun and Kalsi forest divisions.
“Some members of the Sapera community settled in various areas bordering forest areas are involved in poaching pangolin with dogs trained for hunting. Using their traditional knowhow, they are able to poach pangolins without much trouble. Younger males are getting involved in poaching with many of them being aged between 15 and 30 years. While they eat the meat, the poachers are able to get about Rs 10,000 per kg of pangolin scales so the lure of easy money is also fuelling the continued poaching of pangolin,” he said.
It will be recalled that following a spate of seizures by the police of pangolin scales and meat especially from members of the Sapera community last year, the chief wildlife warden Dig Vijay Singh Khati had directed department officers in the Terai region to take deterrent measures and conduct searches especially in Sapera Bastis. Though the searches had not yielded the desired results, the department is now considering working with an NGO to facilitate alternative employment for members of communities traditionally involved in poaching. listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, the pangolin is poached for its scales that fetch upto $ 3,000 per kg in the international market. Its scales are smuggled to China for use in traditional Chinese medicine purportedly to disperse blood stasis, reducing swelling and to treat pain due to rheumatism/arthritis.