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