Species File: Exploring India’s biodiversity, one species at a time.
The pangolin is an unusual-looking mammal. Small and stumpy with a tapered snout, its entire body is covered with overlapping scales. When threatened, the pangolin curls up into a tight, impenetrable ball, its scales protecting it from predators. These same scales, however, render the animal vulnerable to another danger — the illegal wildlife trade. The pangolin is the world’s most trafficked mammal.
There are eight species of pangolins found across Asia and Africa. India hosts two species: the Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata), found across forests, scrublands, and grasslands south of the Himalayas, excluding the north-eastern region; and the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla), which ranges through Assam and the eastern Himalayas. Nocturnal insectivores, pangolins use their long, sticky tongues to catch ants and termites, helping regulate insect populations in ecosystems.
No reliable population estimate exists for either species in India. According to the IUCN Red List, the Indian pangolin is endangered, and the Chinese pangolin is critically endangered, due to declining populations. Both receive Schedule I protection under India’s Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, while all eight pangolin species are listed in Appendix I of CITES, banning international commercial trade.
Despite these protections, pangolins continue to be poached for their scales and meat for their alleged medicinal value. Nearly 6,000 pangolins were poached in India between 2009 and 2017, according to a 2018 report by wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. Pangolins also breed slowly, usually one offspring at a time, making recovery especially difficult.
In a 2020 story published by Mongabay-India, Aniruddha Mookerjee, consultant wildlife advisor, WildCRU, University of Oxford, said: “Pangolin meat is believed to have medicinal properties and is preferred for food. It was always opportunistically hunted. However, the increased commercial value of the scales has pushed up the stakes significantly.”
Read more about pangolins in our stories on India’s role in pangolin poaching, illegal trade routes, and the use of indigenous knowledge to track the animal.
Banner image: An Indian pangolin. Image by A.J.T. Johnsingh, WWF-India and NCF via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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