Pangolin eaters caught with bagful of scales

Two people from Ballari district allegedly trying to sell pangolin scales in the city have been arrested by police.

Cops seized 8.2 kilograms of pangolin scales stuffed in a bag from Ibrahim and Mariswamy, residents of adjacent villages in Sandur taluk.

Annapoorneshwari Nagar police sub-inspector Vinuth H R and his team made the arrests following a tip-off. Police have registered a case against the duo under the Wildlife Protection Act and are carrying out further investigations.

The suspects told the police that they hadn’t collected the pangolin scales with the intention of selling them. They rather hunt the animal for its meat, and it’s a generations-old practice.

The scales have been collected over a long period of time. Someone recently told the arrested men that the scales are in demand and gave them an address near the Bangalore University campus to sell them. The duo came with a bagful of scales and were looking for a middleman when police caught them.

Police said pangolin scales were in high demand in China, where they were used in the preparation of traditional medicines. Middlemen in various parts of the country send the scales to West Bengal or Delhi, from where they are smuggled into China.