Raman Science Centre and planetarium held a seminar on, Combating Wildlife Trafficking in their premises on June 25. The seminar was held in association with US Consulate General Mumbai, where the key speaker was Dr. Samuel Wasser who is a Director of Center for Conservation Biology in University of Washington.
Wasser spoke about the illegal transportation of exotic animals and their body parts and informed about the percentage of such practices and the countries which have a high rate in such trading businesses.
“Central Africa and East Africa are known to get involved in the smuggling trade, where the ivory is the most common material which is being exported on a large scaleâ€, said Wasser during his workshop.
The director further added that not only the number of population of elephants is at risk but even the pangolins are in a threat, as they are in the top most exotic animals list that are being smuggled and are in a vulnerable state.
These trades are highly practiced in the Gabon, which is situated along the Atlantic coast of central Africa and is known to have a diversity of wildlife. Gabon has national parks which mainly consist of rainforests, where the pangolin is highly available as two of their species are found in Africa.
Besides Gabon, Congo is also known for its illegal trade of tusks and pangolin scales. Combining both the country’s trade, 22% of the seized material are from these two countries alone while east Africa has been known to trade 78% of the seized scales and tusks in over past decades.
The scales of pangolin and tusks of elephant are sold in a large number in the Chinese market for medicinal purpose but still, in ages no exact use of these materials are found in the Chinese medicine and are assumed to be a false practice done by the orthodox Chinese people.
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