NAGPUR: Officials of Chichpalli range forest in Chandrapur district on Monday arrested a youth from Rantalodi inside Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) and seized a live pangolin from him.Rantalodi is at the edge of Kolsa range of TATR. The action was taken on a tip-off from little-known wildlife NGO Tiger Hunting End Association (THEA), ChandrapurBP Bramhe, divisional forest officer (DFO) for vigilance, confirmed the development. “The accused, Dinesh Tarte, has not yet revealed whether he caught the mammal from Tadoba or outside. He just said it was captured from forest area.”This is the second live seizure of pangolin in the last 15 days. Earlier, the same NGO had tipped-off Gadchiroli forest department about a contractual teacher from Allapalli with a live pangolin in Aheri. Forest officials had arrested three persons but they were released by the local court next day.According to Nandu Pimple of THEA, “The youth from Rantalodi is said to have sold eight such pangolins to parties in Andhra Pradesh . The matter needs to be investigated thoroughly.”According to a report released by wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC in March this year, nearly 6,000 pangolins were poached in India between 2009-2017. Chinese demand for the pangolin, a scale-covered anteater, to meet culinary and medicinal demand is forcing the endangered animal closer to extinction. Indian pangolin is listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and as endangered on IUCN Red List.

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