ISLAMABAD: Wildlife conservationists and Islamabad police on Thursday raided a house in Bhara Kahu and rescued an endangered pangolin in a risky operation.

The alleged poacher had advertised the sale of the critically endangered pangolin online for Rs200, 000. “We approached the seller as potential buyers. The pangolin was recovered and is in good health,” said protection in-charge, Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) Zaheer Khan, adding that the pangolin had wandered into the fields and was picked up by the alleged poacher.

The operation would not have been possible without the support from Assistant Commissioner Secretariat Aneel Saeed. “Imagine the audacity of the residents there, who became aggressive and pelted one of the police vehicles with stones, hurting a personnel in uniform. Imagine what would have happened to us if we did not have police protection,” said Zaheer Khan.

An FIR was registered against the poacher for illegal sale of an endangered animal and for creating a law and order situation.

Meanwhile, the IWMB team also apprehended another two poachers for hunting the endangered barking deer and pheasants in Shahdara. “We caught them hunting red handed in the protected Margalla Hills National Park and confiscated a double barrel shotgun,” Zaheer Khan said.

Talking to Dawn, Zaheer Khan also explained that the case against a Chinese national, who was charged with capturing and selling an endangered pangolin in the posh sector E-7, was under process.

As the Chinese national had been nominated in an FIR, IWMB, would lodge a complaint against the culprit with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of China for his deportation.

According to IWMB, pangolin meat and its soup was a delicacy in South East Asia. It was also wanted for medicinal purposes and its scales were believed to be used in bullet proof vests. In Pakistan, conservationists were struggling to protect pangolin from extinction, whose numbers in the world have dwindled.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2023