Odisha Special Task Force (STF) has launched drive to bust an international syndicate that peddles ‘endangered’ pangolin, one of the world’s most illegally traded mammals.

 According to Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), it is also the most illegally traded vertebrate within its class (Mammalia). Of the eight species of pangolin worldwide, two are found in India.

• They are Chinese pangolin (manis pentadactyla), mostly found in northeast India and Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata).
• Pangolins is smuggled for its scales as it believed that they possess magic or charms and have medicinal properties.
• Chinese pangolin has been listed as “critically endangered” by UN affiliated International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List.
• Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) has been listed as “endangered” in IUCN Red List.
• It is also a Schedule I category protected animal, under the Wildlife Protection Act (1972).