Pangolin poachers arrested
India: The Forest Department has busted a gang involved in poaching pangolin for scales in contiguous parts of Erode and Coimbatore districts.
Pangolin scales
Having narrowed down on eight persons who had reportedly sourced the Indian pangolin scales from adivasis in Thondanur, Thoomanur and Ahali in Karamadai-Mettupalayam belt of Coimbatore district and Punjai Puliampatti in Erode district last week.
Narikorava community
Three persons belonging to Narikorava community Elumalai (36) and Rangan (35) of Thimmapalayam near Karamadai, and Ponnaiyan (37) of Pudumuthunagar near Thudiyalur were first arrested with the pangolin shells near Vilamundi.
Based on interrogation, the Forest team rounded up five others: Chakrapani (34) and Subramani (63) of Pudumuthunagar, Murugan (37) of Solaimalai, Chandrasekar (32) of Velliankadu and Vellingiri (44) of Narasipuram near Thondamuthur, the sources said.
Most of the arrested persons were sellers of beads, garlic, ginger and other small items in the weekly markets at Punjai Puliampatti, Sathy, Sirumugai and Annur, and had befriended adivasi customers for sourcing the pangolin scales.
