Smuggler arrested with pangolin scales in MP’s Balaghat

A team of Kanha Tiger Reserve officials has arrested a wildlife smuggler with 2 kg Pangolin scales in MP’s Balaghat district.

Published on: Nov 7, 2016, 10:58:38 IST

Bhopal | By Neeraj Santoshi

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A team of Kanha Tiger Reserve officials has arrested a wildlife smuggler with 2 kg Pangolin scales in Balaghat district.

This is the second instance in MP when a Pangolin smuggler has been caught with scales. (File photo)

Field director of the reserve, Sanjay Shukla, told HT that a trap was laid to nab the smuggler from Khatangi range in Balaghat district, over 60 kms from the Kanha Tiger Reserve, on Saturday night.

The accused has been identified as Sanjay Binake, a resident of Tikade village in Balaghat district. “Preliminary investigation has revealed that Binake had plans to handover the scales to someone in Maharashtra. We will interrogate him to get further leads on the network of Pangolin smugglers in the state”, he said.

This is the second instance in MP when a Pangolin smuggler has been caught with scales. In June, forest officials caught two persons with Pangolin meat and scales in Karai village on the border of Pench Tiger reserve.

Pangolin, also called anteater (Manis crassicaudata), is listed in the schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. The demand for pangolins is high in countries like China and Vietnam. Their meat is considered a delicacy and scales are used in traditional medicine. Two species of Pangolins are found in India — the bigger Indian Pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) and smaller Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla).

Till October this year, 113 people have been arrested by forest department’s Special Task Force (STF) across ten states in India, busting the many-layered poaching racket which sources pangolins from MP and smuggles them into China through North East and Myanmar.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Santoshi
Neeraj Santoshi is the Chief of Bureau for Hindustan Times in Uttarakhand, where he leads the state reporting team while covering government, politics, environment, wildlife, Uttarakhand High Court, and issues shaping the Himalayan region. With more than two decades in journalism across conflict zones, he has covered politically sensitive regions and environmentally fragile landscapes, and focused on stories that combine public interest with in-depth storytelling. An alumnus of Pune University with a Master’s in Communication Studies, he has reported extensively from Jammu & Kashmir (2003-2010), Madhya Pradesh (2010 to 2018 ) and Uttarakhand (Since 2018), covering subjects ranging from insurgency, elections and governance to wildlife conservation, mining, climate change, agriculture, human rights and social justice. He has covered politics and legislative assemblies of both Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh over more than a decade. Before taking over as Chief of Bureau in Uttarakhand, he served as Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times in Madhya Pradesh and earlier reported for both Hindustan Times and The Indian Express in Jammu & Kashmir, where he covered state politics, environment and insurgency-related developments. Over the years, his stories have focused on environmental degradation, wildlife, illegal mining, governance and the changing social fabric of Himalayan states and Central India. He is particularly interested in long-form explanatory journalism, and stories that explore the intersection of ecology, conservation, governance and society. Outside the newsroom, Neeraj enjoys reading widely on neuroscience, consciousness studies, Artificial Intelligence and quantum physics, with a special interest in Kashmiri Tantric Shaivist traditions. He is also passionate about wildlife, mountaineering and the Himalayas, interests that continue to inform his reporting and deepen his understanding of the region he covers.Read More

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