In a region where hunting and poaching of pangolins are rampant, villagers pledge to protect them by giving equal reverence to the animal as their village deity
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On February 20, the World Pangolin Day, residents of Dugave village, located
about 100 km from Mumbai, worshipped a Pangolin replica placed near Goddess
Waghjai, the village deity. They prayed for the survival and safety of
pangolins and for wisdom for people so they would not kill the endangered
mammal.
“We could not host Khawlotsav festival like last year due to the
pandemic restrictions,” said Rajaram Kadam, the priest. “Last year we kept the
pangolin replica in a palanquin and carried out a procession around the
village. We visited every house so that everyone could pray.”
“Half of the village of 750 participated in the procession when we
brought the pangolin replica from the village forest to the temple,” Kadam told
VillageSquare.in. “During the program youngsters wrote and sang songs
praising the mammal.”
This year, over 25 villagers including priest Rajaram Kadam offered
flowers to the pangolin replica. Once villages around this region were known
for hunting and poaching of this endangered animal. But now they have taken an oath
to protect the pangolin, and one aspect of the protection is placing the
pangolin in their altar.
Pangolin hunting
For many decades, people used to hunt pangolin in the Konkan region of Maharashtra for its meat and the lucrative scales that
were sold to smugglers. The area comprises of 162 villages in Chiplun administrative
block in Ratnagiri district and has a population of about 1.5 lakh people.
The pangolin is listed as an endangered mammal under India’s Wildlife
(Protection) Act, 1972, and is also classified as Endangered in the IUCN Red
List. The Indian Pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) and the Chinese Pangolin (Manis
pentadactyla) are found in India. It is among the most trafficked mammals in
Asia as pangolin scales are in high demand in China and Vietnam.
In 2016, wildlife protection officials seized 44 kg of hunted pangolins
in raids across the region. This seizure proved to be a catalyst in pangolin
conservation in the region. Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra (Sahyadri Natures’ Friend),
a local conservation organization, began a campaign to protect the animal.
“We initially patrolled at night, to identify areas where we could find pangolins.
We must have done patrolling for over 500 nights,” said Bhau Katdare, founder
of Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra (SNM). “But pangolins cannot be spotted with naked
eyes.”
So the SNM team installed 40 camera traps across these 162 villages and
forests nearby. “We have footage of 1,500 days till now,” Bhau Katdare told VillageSquare.in. “With the camera traps we spotted over 125 pangolins,
confirming their existence in the area.”
Increased awareness
The SNM team visited 162 villages in Chiplun administrative block where
hunting of pangolins was common. They conducted over 20 meetings for residents
staying at various hamlets of Dugave village, where the team was already
working.
“We told them about the importance of pangolins, and how they are helpful
to their agriculture and environment by eating insect pests and tending the
soil,” Katdare told VillageSquare.in. “To highlight their status as an endangered animal, and
spread the message of saving pangolins across the Konkan region, we started the
Khawlotsav.”
“We see pangolins in the forest near our village,” Mahindra Kadam, one
of the villagers, told VillageSquare.in. “Hunters would kill them. We were not aware of the
animals’ importance till Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra activists told us.”
Many villagers also said that they had heard about poachers killing
pangolins but were not aware that it was happening in their villages. “Since we
know about the importance of the endangered mammal now, we took an oath to
protect them,” said Mahindra Kadam.
“Everyone understands the importance of pangolins after the awareness
programs. Now we question people who move suspiciously in the forest,” Chandrakant
Tandkar, deputy village head of Dugave, told VillageSquare.in. “Villagers now know that they should not hunt
pangolins and should report if they spot any hunters in the village forest.”
Persisting problem
Even though the villagers of Konkan region have become pangolin
protectors, illegal poaching and trade of pangolins still thrive; despite
severe punishments of up to five years in jail for hunting the animal. Officials
have been trying to crack down illegal wildlife networks.
Last month, Indian forest officials seized three live pangolins during a
raid in the Nanded region. Nearly 6,000 pangolins were seized from illegal
trade between 2009 and 2017 as per factsheet of TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade
monitoring network, published in 2020.
However, the estimated total of 5,772 seized animals is likely to be an
under-estimate, as per the report. The officials of Wildlife Crime Control
Bureau (WCCB), did not respond to questions on the number of pangolins killed
or cases filed every year.
Behavioral study
Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) helped SNM with camera traps and also
technical guidance. Anish Andheria, president of WCT, Mumbai, said, “Many
organizations work towards conserving pangolins by creating awareness. But we
are studying their behavior.”
According to Andheria there is rampant poaching of pangolins but the
animals survive due to their behavioral trait. Pangolins, weighing 8-12 kg
generally, are nocturnal, mostly stay in their burrows in the jungle and come out
only for food. Their time outside the burrow depends on season and availability
of food, which is ants and not termite, as general believed.
“Along with the forest department of Madhya Pradesh, we radio tagged
three pangolins in September 2019 in Satpuda and Pench Tiger reserves,” Andheria
told VillageSquare.in. “And we have been studying their behavioral pattern
in order to develop strategies to protect them.”
Varsha Torgalkar is a
Pune-based journalist. Views are personal. Email: varshat375@gmail.com
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