Endangered pangolin rescued in Noida

Police on Saturday rescued an adult pangolin or scaly anteater — an endangered mammal species — and handed over the scared animal to the forest department

Police on Saturday rescued an adult pangolin or scaly anteater — an endangered mammal species — and handed over the scared animal to the forest department.

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The animal was spotted by locals in Behlolpur area around 8.30am on Saturday, police said.

“The animal fell down a drain in Behlolpur floodplains where locals saw it. They raised an alarm and the animal was brought out,” said Vivek Triwedi, station house officer, Phase 3 police station.

The species is believed to be trafficked or poached primarily for Chinese market for its scales, the officials said, adding that in the black market, the animal costs anything between ₹2 and ₹3 crore. The species is protected under the schedule-1 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.

“The animal is currently safe but still under stress. It will soon be released in Hastinapur sanctuary after seeking permissions form the principal chief conservator of forest. The animal was a free ranging or wild and not the held under captivity,” said PK Srivastava, divisional forest officer, Gautam Budh Nagar.

India is home to two of the eight pangolin species found across Asia and Africa -- the Indian pangolin and Chinese pangolin.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the pangolin is enlisted in “red list”, with the Indian pangolin listed as “endangered” and the Chinese pangolin listed “critically endangered” -- a step behind “extinction”.

With ants as its primary prey, its tongue is longer than its body to help it catch as many as 20,000 ants per day, experts said. The species is threatened due to its scale, made of keratin -- like human nails.

According to the experts, the species is very elusive, nocturnal in nature and “very difficult to spot”.

“The area around Nodia is dry and arid, so the species would be there. However, its spotting is a surprise. It’s highly traded in Chinese black market for traditional Chinese medicines,” said Dipankar Ghosh, director (species and landscape), World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

“The species would have come out in search of food as it’s monsoon. The species prefer habitats with rocks and boulders under which they dig resting burrows while the location of feeding burrows largely overlaps with the distribution of prey species,” said Sipu Kumar, researcher at Wildlife Institute of India (WII).