Union Min Prakash Javadekar Praises Odisha Forest Officials For Pangolin Rescue

The Union Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change tweeted: Kudos to the Wildlife officials in Cuttack for rescuing a young pangolin from smugglers. Glad to know it has been released back into the wild. Pangolins are amongst the most trafficked mammals in the world & are majorly trafficked for their scales & their use in Chinese medicines.

Pangolin is traded from Odisha to other countries for its medicinal value.

In December last year, a wildlife trade racket came to light in the district when a team of Special Task Force (STF) of Odisha Crime Branch rescued a pangolin and arrested a person.

More than a year back the forest officials had tracked down an online trade link of the pangolin smuggling racket.

It was found out that the smugglers had formed WhatsApp groups and were also using some websites to send videos to their customers with codes and dealer names as part of the online deals.

All eight species of pangolin are protected under national and international laws and two of them are listed as critically endangered species as per the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Also Read: Another-pangolin-trade-racket-busted-in-odishas-cuttack/