To protect pangolins in the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, conservationists are turning to community-driven customary laws, reports contributor Kasturi Das for Mongabay India.
In February this year, the United Sangtam Likhum Pumji (USLP), the apex tribal body of the Sangtam Naga community, passed a resolution banning pangolin hunting in 42 villages in Nagaland’s Kiphire district. Village councils are responsible for enforcement, and customary courts will handle violations.
Pangolins, the world’s most trafficked mammals, are protected under national laws in India, which prohibits hunting. However, enforcement is challenging in states like Nagaland, where land and resource management is largely governed by local customary laws.
Monesh Tomar, assistant manager at the conservation group Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), told Mongabay India that many communities there aren’t fully aware of the national laws. Moreover, officials and community members frequently belong to the same social networks, making enforcement difficult, he said.
Traditionally, pangolin hunting in parts of Nagaland was driven by cultural beliefs. “Our forefathers would say that if a pangolin enters a house, it was considered a bad omen or curse,” L. Kipitong Sangtam, 61, a Kiphire resident and member of the USLP, told Mongabay India. “In the past, if someone encountered a pangolin, they would try to catch and kill it, sometimes by digging it out of its burrow.”
Now, hunting is mostly for local demand for meat and scales to make ornaments, according to Mukesh Thakur, wildlife forensic expert with the Zoological Survey of India.
Pangolin scales are also targeted for use in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine, on the scientifically unproven basis they have medicinal qualities.
Kiphire district lies along the porous border with Myanmar, making it a potential transit route for the illegal wildlife trade, WTI notes. A Wildlife Crime Control Bureau official, on condition of anonymity, told Mongabay India that policing the pangolin trade in the region is complicated by geography and long-standing social ties. “Many communities living along the border have relatives on both sides — India and Myanmar,” the official said. “This makes enforcement alone insufficient. You need community engagement and behavioral change alongside it.”
To drive behavioral and cultural changes, WTI conservationists emphasize the important ecological role that pangolins play. For example, the livelihoods of many in the Sangtam community depend heavily on wood, bamboo and forest produce, which are vulnerable to termite infestations.
“We explained how pangolins help control termite populations, consuming millions over their lifetime,” Tomar said. “We also highlighted that declining pangolin populations could lead to increased pesticide use, which would harm future generations.”
“Pangolins help farmers,” Kipitong said. “They eat insects that damage crops, so they are useful for agriculture. This is one of the reasons why we now believe they should be protected.”
The USLP resolution builds upon WTI’s similar initiative in neighboring Manipur state, where another tribal body banned pangolin hunting across 252 villages.
Read the full story by Kasturi Das here.
Banner image: The Sangtam Naga community recently passed a resolution banning pangolin hunting. Image by Thingtsali Sangtam via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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