The sleuths of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) and Assam forest department officials have rescued an adult pangolin, an endangered mammal, from two people who intended to sell it to a person from Nagaland.
The accused were arrested for their involvement in trading the endangered wildlife species under relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
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Senior WCCB officials on Friday said that they were arrested on Thursday night from a hotel in Guwahati and the pangolin was seized
Unfortunately, the person who wanted to buy the pangolin managed to escape.
“The arrested duo have been identified as Micheal Palmar from Meghalaya and Biri Hachi from Arunachal Pradesh. The two had brought the pangolin from Naharlagun and supposed to sell it to one person from Nagaland,” said an official.
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The official said that the illegal trade of wildlife have been on the rise in the entire Northeastern states and added that pangolin is traded for its meat as well as for its scales.
“The scales of the pangolin are in high demand in some of the Southeast Asian countries where they are used in dry forms to cure a variety of diseases. Some of the people in these countries believe that the scales of pangolin are helpful in treatment of excessive nervousness and hysterical crying in children, women possessed by devils, malarial fever and deafness,” the official added.
Two varieties of pangolins are found in the forests of Northeast Indian states—the Chinese pangolin and Indian pangolin.
Both the varieties have been listed as threatened species by the IUCN red list.