Nearly 70 kg of pangolin scales were seized and seven people arrested today for trying to smuggle body parts of endangered mammals at Siliguri in West Bengal.
Additional Divisional Forest Officer Debajyoti Bera said at least 300 pangolins were killed to procure these scales.
He said the scales were brought from Kalka in Haryana by Bakcha Dhabi in Mahananda Express for hand over to smugglers based in Nepal, Nagaland and Manipur.
Acting on a tip-off, the forest officials of Salugara Range and local police officers caught them at Champasari More in the town and seized the scales this evening, he said.
The pangolin scales worth crores of rupees were being smuggled for use in traditional medicine.
