BENGALURU: Bengaluru City Police arrested one person and recovered 23kg of pangolin scales. According to conservationists, experts, police and forest department officials, this is the biggest haul ever in the city. They said this has raised a lot of questions pertaining to the procurement, poaching, hunting and export of scales. According to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, poaching is the second biggest crime after drugs.
On Wednesday night, Hanumanthanagar police had arrested Kiran Ramanayak, 25, a resident of Siddapura in Uttara Kananda district, with 23kg of pangolin scales. “This is the biggest haul of scales in Bengaluru so far. There were four men, and while three escaped, we caught Ramanayak. One of the absconders is said to be a habitual offender, and was involved in exporting scales to other states and countries,” said an investigating officer.
Conservationists involved in the case said that for such a quantity be collected, 30-35 pangolins would have been killed and skinned. The scales appear to have been collected over a period of three to four years, and could be just the tip of the iceberg, they added. The maximum seizure was 9kg in Annapoorneshwari Nagar, while 3kg had earlier been seized in Chitradurga.
“The people involved in the case are hunters. We are probing all angles to find out where the pangolins could have been procured from, the channels of sale, network, places where there is demand, and the reasons. It is known that pangolin scales are used for medicinal purposes and accessories, but there is needs for a bigger probe,” said the investigating officer. Ramanayak was arrested near BWSSB Park in Banashankari first stage, and booked under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.