CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -On August 25, Indonesian authorities seized 657 pangolins, weighing about 2.3 metric tons, from a house in Jombang district on the Indonesian island of Java.

Detailed explanation-2: -China and Vietnam are the biggest markets for pangolin scales, which are used in traditional medicines. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid growing concerns about zoonotic diseases, China enacted measures to disincentivize the use of pangolin scales in traditional medicine.

Detailed explanation-3: -Major threats to pangolins in India are hunting and poaching for local consumptive use (e.g. as a protein source and traditional medicine) and international trade, for its meat and scales in East and South East Asian countries, particularly China and Vietnam.

Detailed explanation-4: -Pangolins are the world’s most trafficked mammals. With high levels of hunting and poaching for the illicit trade in their meat and scales – for traditional medicines in Asia, primarily in China and Vietnam – there has been a dramatic decrease in pangolin populations over the last 15 years.

Detailed explanation-5: -Three of the four Asian pangolins-the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla), Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica), and Philippine pangolin-are critically endangered, while the Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List.