The Pangolin has nowhere to stay safe – Neither really nor virtually
When a blanket ban on the international trade of eight pangolin species came into effect in 2016, a glimmer of hope rose for the world’s most trafficked mammal. The pangolin or scaly anteater is uniquely the only scaled mammal, which is also the cause for its unfortunate status of being one of the most exploited and traded mammal on Earth.
The scaly shield that evolved over millions of
years to function as a defense mechanism from sharp toothed predators is rendered
useless against human poachers. The slow and shy mammal is simply caught and bagged
for consumption or traded among several communities worldwide for its myriad unproven
medicinal properties. Ironically enough, unending demand and relentless pursuit
for the pangolin’s “protective” shield is driving the species to extinction.
Although
protected under Schedule I of Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, Indian and
Chinese pangolins are known to be poached and traded widely across India for
meat and scales. The scenario seems to be changing from opportunistic hunting
for local subsistence to intentional capture and slaughter for the purpose of
commercial trade. In spite of a relentless government led crackdown, the market demand and continued functioning of crime
networks pose a grave threat to rare and endangered wildlife.
Many
conservationists crossed fingers in 2020 when virologists
linked the pangolin as a probable intermediary host to the novel coronavirus
COVID-19. It was expected that the paranoia generated by the worldwide spread
of COVID 19 would lead to reduced
demand and smuggling. However, it
is known that local demand in source countries such as India and international
demand from recipient countries such as China, Vietnam and Singapore among
others continues to balloon.
With an annual profit of >7 billion USD, illegal wildlife
trade is the fourth largest crime industry in the world
and is dependent on a dynamic network of criminal groups potentially
linked with other serious illegal trades such as drugs, arms and human
trafficking. As with any profitable business,
wildlife trade is dynamic and continually evolving, and in today’s digital era
of rapid networking, buyers and traffickers seem to be comfortably using social
media platforms to connect with one another and fix deals. YouTube, the world’s
most popular video platform is increasingly becoming a hub for illegal wildlife
trade, enabling the global expansion of local trade networks. The endangered
pangolin faces this previously unheralded threat of rampant online trade, certainly
not helped by its emerging popularity on YouTube where it is on the verge of being
openly auctioned.
A
targeted scan of pangolin videos of posted by Indian channels on YouTube revealed an openly ongoing racket of illegal wildlife trade. Barbaric
videos of captured pangolins being teased and used as props for entertainment,
even slaughtered and skinned to showcase the process of separating scales from
the body. The criminals behind-the-scenes were also found to perform “tricks”
such as the “electricity test” wherein the animal is poked with a metal
screwdriver connected to a bulb which supposedly lights up, “bubbles test” to
show that the scales apparently produce bubbles when dipped in water, all
made-up tactics to attract buyers and increase prices.
19
active channels were found to have uploaded 30 videos of live pangolins and 20
videos of pangolin scales, having as many as
18,21,398 views! Most interestingly, the comments
sections are new hunting grounds for these miscreants, wherein the modus
operandi is to seek buyers/sellers by stating availability or interest in
wildlife article(s), exchange contact numbers and then continue chatting in
private to fix deals.
24% of
total comments posted on the videos were directly
related to illegal pangolin trade, and all
communication threads are active till date. These comments laying out in
the open reflected complete disregard for the
animal’s well-being, no fear of the law, and were bone-chilling: ‘Hello,
I want to buy the bone that is extracted from a female pangolin after birth. If
you have this twisted bone, send me a message on WhatsApp, this number is
XXXXXX’, ‘Pura jinda hai bhai kisi ko chahiye to address Balrampur,
Chhattisgarh’ and ‘I want to buy a Pangolin, is there any way to import
it to Europe?’
A total of 183 individuals had posted their contact numbers, of whom
114 were identified as buyers and 69 others looking to sell live/dead pangolin
and its body parts. Majority of these individuals hailed from forested states
of Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Odisha, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra
& NE region and surprisingly, the state of Bihar
was found to host the maximum buyers and
sellers trading in pangolin scales. Additionally,
7 international contacts (3 buyers and 4 sellers) were recorded from Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Czech Republic
and Indonesia.
The users
were also found to not bother being careful with code words, which may hint at
a lack of fear of national/international law. It was shocking to find traders
dealing even on a news channel video about a pangolin seized by enforcement
authorities!
Another disconcerting realization
is the rising trend in uploaded videos in recent
years with an explosion of trade-related queries. While the earliest video
appears to be operational since 2011, the past three years have seen an
increase to 10 videos in 2018, 15 videos in 2019, 9 videos in 2020 and as many
as 12 videos till May this year. In the
past few years, increased activity in the comments section is attributed to
both, the growing awareness about illegal pangolin trade as well as an increase
in online networking among traders and middlemen. The rising trend of
the past three years indicates that the trade is likely to grow exponentially
in the coming years.
With trade
networks established across the globe, pangolins face an immediate threat of
extinction. The ease of virtual networking and
online illegal wildlife trade has the potential of further increasing demand
locally and globally, enabling the expansion of otherwise local and unorganized
networks, and most of all, it poses a serious challenge to traditional law
enforcement authorities in regulating trade and nabbing culprits. Rare
animals such as turtles, sand boas, tokay geckos and a variety of wildlife
articles are also being traded online. An urgent requirement would be to choke
the ease of communication amongst prospective buyers and traders as well as call
out the perpetrators using a dedicated wing of the cyber-crime division and
wildlife law enforcement authorities. Media attention regarding the peril of
pangolins seems to have helped spread awareness about the issue, and the
involvement of common citizens in in reporting instances of online IWT and
thereby assisting agencies in law enforcement, could be beneficial in
curtailing its irreversible expansion. The trade may possibly jump to other
social media platforms and even the dark web, but a concerted effort to track
the traders could serve as a warning to other doppelgangers who may be planning
on jumping onto the online bandwagon.
Monesh
Singh Tomar, Abhipsha Ghosh and Kunal Sharma
