Nagaland tribe resolves to protect pangolins

The Sangtam community in Nagaland commits to protecting pangolins, bolstering grassroots conservation efforts against wildlife trafficking.

GUWAHATI

The apex body of Nagaland’s Sangtam community has passed a resolution to protect pangolins, the world’s most trafficked wild mammal, within its jurisdiction.

The initiative is deemed significant, as the Sangtams are concentrated in the Kiphire and Tuensang districts of Nagaland, bordering Myanmar. Most pangolins from the northeastern and other parts of India are trafficked along the 1,643-km India-Myanmar border.

According to conservationists, United Sangtam Likhum Pumji’s resolution is a major achievement under the ongoing Countering Pangolin Trafficking Project led by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI). The Wildlife Conservation Network’s Pangolin Crisis Fund supports the project.

“The resolution reflects the growing strength of community-led conservation efforts and signals an expanding wave of grassroots support for pangolin protection across State boundaries,” a WTI spokesperson said.

In 2023, the WTI initiated a project in Manipur to counter the alarming illegal wildlife trade that was threatening the survival of the Indian Pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) and the Chinese Pangolin (Manis pentadactyla). The project was later expanded to Nagaland, particularly along the India-Myanmar border, identified as a critical landscape for the animal.