A pangolin was ꦜrescued from a village in Odisha’s Kalahandi district, and one person was arrested on charges of wildlife traffick🥂ing, police said on Monday.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of special task force personnel with the help of forest department officials conducted a search operation near Karnikhunti village under the Bhawanipatna-Madanpur Road police station limits on May 21 and recovered the anim✃al from his possession, a senior officer said.
It was suspected that the animal was trafficked by the accused, he said. The STF has handed over the endange🦩red ani❀mal under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 to the divisional forest officer of Kalahandi for safe custody.
Pangolins are nocturnal, termite-eating mammals found in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, and they are protected under schedule-I of the꧙ law, which put them in the same bracket as tigers, lions, rhinos and several other species.
The body of a pangolin is covered with overlapping scales made of keratin, th༺e same protein that forms human hair and nails, and rhino horn. Since 2020, the STF ha✱s seized skin of 28 leopards, 24 elephant tusks and 14 pangolins, and arrested 69 wildlife criminals.
(With PTI inputs)
