GUWAHATI: The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) and Assam state forest department officials rescued a pangolin in a joint operation and arrested two persons from Guwahati’s Lokhra area on Thursday, June 20 in connection to its smuggling.
According to TOI, the two were arrested from a hotel in the city. The accused have been identified as Micheal Palmer from Meghalaya and Biri Hachi from Arunachal Pradesh. The duo had smuggled the pangolin from Naharlagun in Arunachal Pradesh.
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The men were planning to sell the 6.2 kilo pangolin to an agent from Nagaland, who fled from the spot.
It should be noted that Pangolin scale is in very high demand and it is smuggled to international markets in Southeast Asian countries, where it is used as decorative items.
The northeastern region is home to two different kinds of Pangolin- the Indian pangolin and the Chinese pangolin, both of which are listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
