Protecting Pangolins in India: When an armor is not enough

Pangolins, the world's most trafficked mammals, face an escalating crisis from poaching and illegal trade. In India alone, between 120 and 240 pangolins are seized from trafficking networks each year — though the actual numbers are far higher. According to Global Voices, nearly six thousand pangolins were poached from India between 2009 and 2017, and between 2019 and 2022, Indian authorities seized over three hundred kilograms of pangolin scales. These scales have been valued in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries, despite having no scientific backing whatsoever. The scales are made of keratin, the same protein as human fingernails — yet pangolins continue to be hunted for this worthless commodity, with estimates suggesting one pangolin disappears into trafficking networks every five minutes globally. India, which hosts the Indian pangolin and Chinese pangolin species, has enacted strict wildlife protection laws, but enforcement has been difficult as trafficking has increasingly moved online. Global Voices reports that conservation organizations like the Wildlife Trust of India are making progress through community engagement: indigenous communities in northeastern India have successfully banned pangolin hunting across more than 300 villages, and citizen-powered platforms are helping report wildlife trafficking on social media. Experts say that rooting out this illegal trade requires tackling the broader criminal networks that also traffic in arms and humans.

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