Pangolin rescued in Odisha, one held

A pangolin was rescued from a village in Odisha’s Kalahandi district, and one person was arrested on charges of wildlife trafficking, police said on Monday.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of special task force personnel with the help of forest department officials conducted a search operation near Karnikhunti village under the Bhawanipatna-Madanpur Road police station limits on May 21 and recovered the animal from his possession, a senior officer said.

It was suspected that the animal was trafficked by the accused, he said.

The STF has handed over the endangered animal under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 to the divisional forest officer of Kalahandi for safe custody, while the arrest Pangolins are nocturnal, termite-eating mammals found in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, and they are protected under schedule-I of the law, which put them in the same bracket as tigers, lions, rhinos and several other species.

The body of a pangolin is covered with overlapping scales made of keratin, the same protein that forms human hair and nails, and rhino horn. Since 2020, the STF has seized the skin of 28 leopards, 24 elephant tusks, and 14 pangolins, and arrested 69 wildlife criminals.

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