Meera Bhardwaj By Express News Service BENGALURU: A 17-year-old diploma student in Chikkamagaluru has been found to be the kingpin of a big network involved in smuggling of tortoises/turtles. He is also believed to be the one who perpetrated the myth that these highly protected Schedule-1 species bring good fortune, wealth and luck. Forest officials busted the network after a month-long probe and to their shock, found that the youth was the brain behind the network and had even motivated others in trading of different species of tortoises. Eight people have been arrested in connection with two cases. The Forest Police Cell and Chikkamagaluru RFO Shilpa and her team nabbed the tortoise/turtle smugglers based on a tip-off. The animals were hunted in the wetland habitat of Lingadalli forests In the first case, the forest police cell team led by Sub-Inspector Sunil Kumar caught Eshwar Reddy, a resident, Chikkamagaluru city, while he was trying to sell two Indian black tortoises. A case was registered under the Wildlife Protection Act. According to Bengaluru (Urban) honorary wildlife warden A Prasanna Kumar, pangolins are found in open patches of grasslands in Devanahalli, Hesaraghatta, Nelamangala and Kaggalipura. He added, “Highly elusive and unusual, this burrowing animal is rarely seen. I have rescued about four pangolins in the last 10 years while many NGOs are involved in their rescue, some tend to keep them. We have been tracking these animals in the grasslands of Hesaraghatta and trying to study them. However, they are being killed and their scales smuggled out of Bengaluru daily. With absolutely no awareness about this animal and low conviction rate of hunters, trafficking of the animal continues unabated. Hence, Bengaluru Urban area needs an exclusive wildlife protection unit.” Forest officials say these scaly ant-eaters have neither been sighted nor camera-trapped in Bannerghatta and they are usually hunted in the inter-state borders and brought to Bengaluru as the hunter is assured of a good price for its scales. A forest officer told TNIE that pangolins were not sighted even once in Bannerghatta in a five-year study on mammals with camera traps. He added, “Hunting is widespread along the borders and with Bengaluru being the nearest and biggest city for wildlife trading, most of the scales are brought from Hosur, Thalli, Dharmapuri and other areas. These areas are scrubby, deciduous lands and with pangolins thriving in grasslands, it has become easy for hunters to either kill them or remove the scales and bring them to Bengaluru. The demand for pangolin scales is well known and its price doubles along the delivery chain.” Usually, pangolin scales are mixed with sand and other construction material and packed in gunny or jute bags and transported through conduits to Nepal or Myanmar and finally to their destination in China and Vietnam. With checking at these borders being slack, a conduit manages to smuggle in 1-2 kg of scales on a daily basis, according to officials.

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