AT Photo: Chinese pangolin at Raimona National Park
Guwahati, Nov 28: An exciting discovery has been made in the Raimona National Park of the State by the conservationists and forest officials who have recorded the first photographic evidence of the Chinese pangolin.
As part of the study published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa, an internationally-recognized scientific, peer-reviewed open access journal, a team led by Kachugaon Forest Division, Assam Forest Department, conservationists from Aaranyak and other organizations have confirmed the finding.
“The paper also clarified a confusion of the occurrence of Indian pangolin in Assam and Northeast India which will potentially rectify the distribution map of IUCN Redlist,” says the lead author of the paper Dr Dipankar Lahkar.
Aaranyak's senior scientist Dr M Firoz Ahmed, Bhanu Sinha, Pranjal Talukdar, Biswajit Basumatary, Tunu Basumatary, Ramie H Begum, Nibir Medhi, Nitul Kalita and Abishek Harihar have contributed in the paper as well. Chinese pangolin (Manispentadactyla) is a highly trafficked, elusive, solitary, nocturnal, burrowing mammal with scarce information on its distribution and current occurrence across its distributed range.
“This interesting finding of the occurrence of the Chinese pangolin in Raimona National Park was recorded as part of the continuous research that is being conducted for the purpose of improving conservation efforts in the national park. This will, in my opinion, strengthen the spirit of conservation in Raimona and will help to ensure that more elusive findings will soon be recorded," said Bhanu Sinha, Divisional Forest Officer of Raimona National Park.
There are two species of pangolins - Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) and Chinese pangolin - that occur in India, as per the report.
"In India, despite stringent legal protections, pangolins are continuously hunted for meat, body parts and traditional medicinal purposes," says the report.
The Chinese pangolin currently occurs in eastern, northern and southeastern Asian countries, spanning India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Laos, and Vietnam at elevations of 0-3,000 m. In India, the Chinese pangolin is restricted to the foothills of the Himalayas, in the northern and across the northeastern region.
-By Staff Reporter
