India has been struggling to squelch smuggling and poaching of endangered animals. However, activists say that the country's focus on well-known species like tigers has backfired as poachers have been increasingly turning to smaller animals, like the Indian pangolin and the star tortoise.
Critics say that Indian officials, while trying to aid conservation efforts, have been putting too much focus on protecting larger animals from wildlife poachers who trap animals in the wild and sell them for meat, for clothing, or for other purposes such as medicine. As a result, smaller animals like the pangolin and the star tortoise have been slipping under the radar, and now have populations in critically low numbers.
"The problem is that we were turning a blind eye to all lesser-known species and suddenly this very lucrative trade has been allowed to explode," said Belinda Wright, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.
Pangolins are among the most illegally-traded animals in the world, sources say, and all eight species of pangolin worldwide were added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species in July. They are often smuggled into China where their meat is considered a delicacy, and their scales are used for medicinal purposes. Pangolins are the only animal in the world with scales made of pure keratin, the protein that our hair and fingernails are made of.
Star tortoises are also in grave danger of extinction. They are prized as exotic pets.
Conservationists speculate that increased prosperity in China and other Southeast Asian countries have driven up the demand for these animals in India. From 1990 to 2008, only about 800 star tortoises illegally smuggled were seized each year. Since 2008, over 3,000 star tortoises have been seized a year. Pangolin trade in India was rare in the past, too: figures estimate that only about three pangolins were killed a year by poachers from 1990 to 2008. From 2009 to 2013, over 320 pangolins a year have been killed.
These numbers, shockingly high, are still a low estimate on the amount of trade actually going on, since only confirmed seizures are tracked or counted. Conservationists say seizures represent probably only about 10% of all illegal animal poaching going on.
Wright urged action to protect lesser-known animals like the pangolin and the star tortoise from illegal trade in India.
"This is a huge tragedy in the making," Wright said. "We must act before it is too late, or many of these spectacular animals will disappear."
