After achieving a significant milestone in the conservation of the migratory Amur falcons, Nagaland has once again made headlines offering community support for protection of Pangolins, tagged the world’s most trafficked wild mammal. Nagaland’s Sangtam community has resolved to protect pangolins across their traditional lands. The Sangtams—a major ethnic group of Nagaland state in north eastern India inhabits the Kiphire and Tuensang districts bordering Myanmar. These bordering areas are rich biodiversity areas and part of the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot and at the same time vulnerable owing to the porous Indo-Myanmar border, infamous for wildlife trafficking.
Conservation success stories all over the world trace back to a strong support from the community. Community plays an important role in managing forests as well as traditional governance system in Nagaland led by village councils and apex tribal bodies. Earlier, it was the village councils from the Wokha district that pledged to save the migratory Amur raptor in Doyang Reservoir— its largest roosting site in the country. Now the United Sangtam Likhum Pumji, the apex body of Nagaland’s Sangtam community has passed a resolution to protect the pangolins collaborating with an ongoing project by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI). Countering Pangolin Trafficking— a project supported by Wildlife Conservation Network’s Pangolin Crisis Fund was launched in 2023 in Manipur to counter the illegal trafficking of the two pangolin species found in the region, the Chinese Pangolin and the Indian Pangolin.
Before the Sangtam resolution, the WTI collaborated with the Tangkhul Naga community inhabiting Manipur’s Ukhrul district bordering Myanmar. A resolution was passed by Tangkhul Naga Awunga Long in Auigust, 2024 banning the hunting and trade of Chinese Pangolins followed by another resolution in June, 2025 banning hunting, poaching and trade of species like the Hoolock gibbon and hornbill.
India’s north eastern states remained a source for wildlife products like rhino horns, ivory, tiger parts as well as organs of various cat and civet species and pangolin scales. Illegal wildlife trade has expanded to include the Tokay Gecko and monitor lizard as well as all species of nocturnal Asian lizards. Trade in wildlife parts and the trafficking of small animals and reptiles for use in traditional medicines, laboratories, and the fashion and cosmetic industries has decimated countless species.
The pangolin’s plight
Despite a global ban on commercial trade, Pangolins continue to be the world’s most trafficked mammals. These slow moving, nocturnal creatures are found across Asia and Africa. Of the existing eight different pangolin species, four are found in Asia— the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla), Philippine (Manis Culionensis), Sunda or Malayan (Manis javanica), and the Endangered Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata). Both the Chinese and Indian pangolin species found in India, are protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The Chinese, Philippine, and Sunda pangolins are listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, with populations declining by over 80 percent due to hunting for their scales and meat, and loss of habitat. In 2016, seizure of more than 18,000 tons of pangolin scales across 19 countries forced a ban in the trade of all eight species of the pangolin. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) listed all eight in Appendix I banning their international commercial trade.
Often called “scaly anteaters”, the pangolin is world’s only mammal covered in scales. They can roll up into a near-perfect ball, covering their faces and undersides when threatened. The animal uses the tough and overlapping scales for protection. Pangolins are traded principally because of the demand for their keratin scales used in traditional medicine. Each kilogram of scales requires the killing of three or four animals. Pangolins make up around 20% of all illegal trade in species making them critically endangered in some parts of the world. The meat of the pangolin is eaten as bush meat in many parts of Africa and China and it has become luxury food in other parts of the world as well. The practice has been observed in the northeastern states bordering China and Burma.
Cases reveal organized smuggling networks targeting pangolins
Large-scale seizure of pangolin scales were reported from different parts of Assam last year. In a major haul, over 220 kilograms of pangolin scales were seized at the Barpeta Road Railway Station in Assam on October 13, 2025. The Field Director of Manas National Park and Tiger Reserve (MNPTR) C Ramesh informed that a joint team of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), the Sahastra Seema Bal (SSB), the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and forest personnel from MNPTR acting on a tip off seized the consignment from the Bengaluru-Guwahati Express travelling from Chennai to Guwahati. Three people including a woman were arrested in this connection. More pangolin scales were recovered from wildlife traffickers in the first week of November. On the night of November 6, a team of Assam Police’s Special Task Force (STF) in close collaboration with the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) arrested two individuals from Kuthori in Kaziranga and recovered from their possession six Tokay Geckos, a live Slow Loris and pangolin scales weighing over 10 kilograms. Police suspected all these had been collected from the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR). This was followed by another crackdown. On November 8, the Dima Hasao Forest Department in coordination with the WCCB seized around three kilograms of pangolin scales.
On February 15, 2026, the South Range team of Jaldapara Wildlife Division arrested three people with 1.710 kilograms of pangolin scales from the Sonapur-Jaigaon Road, Alipurduar. The scales were procured from Meghalaya, the enquiry revealed. All the recovery and revelations point towards organized smuggling networks active in the northeastern states currently targeting the species. Despite being listed under highest level of national and international legal protection, the pangolin’s survival risks continue to be under threat from relentless poaching.
China, one of the biggest consumers of pangolin scales and meat, had already prohibited almost all domestic trade and use of pangolins after 2020. Beijing removed the animal from its official list of approved traditional medicine ingredients. The shift, hoped to significantly dampen demand, however failed to guarantee the pangolin’s survival.