IWN Original Report — Tuesday, 12 May 2026
The most trafficked mammal on earth just got a new line of defence — and it came not from a court order or a government circular, but from a tribal council in the hills of Nagaland.
In February 2026, the United Sangtam Likhum Pumji (USLP) — the apex tribal body of the Sangtam Naga community — formally passed a resolution prohibiting pangolin hunting and trade within its jurisdiction. The USLP governs communities spread across the districts of Kiphire and Tuensang in Nagaland, in the forest-rich hill country that forms part of the Indo-Myanmar biodiversity hotspot. These are landscapes where enforcement agencies rarely reach, and where the decisions of village councils carry more weight than any government notice.
The resolution is the result of sustained, patient work by the Wildlife Trust of India under its Countering Pangolin Trafficking Project, supported by the Wildlife Conservation Network’s Pangolin Crisis Fund, in collaboration with the Manipur and Nagaland Forest Departments.
Why this matters
Both species found in Northeast India — the Indian Pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) and the Chinese Pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) — are listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Pangolins are the most illegally traded wild mammal in the world. Demand is driven largely by markets in Southeast and East Asia, where their scales are used in traditional medicine and their meat is considered a delicacy.
The Indo-Myanmar border region has been identified as a critical trafficking corridor. It is remote, porous, and difficult to police. The forests on both sides hold pangolin populations that are dwindling precisely because the supply chain begins here, often with hunters who have no idea their animals will end up in a market thousands of kilometres away.
WTI began working in Manipur in 2023, then expanded into Nagaland — focusing not just on enforcement, but on the harder, slower task of changing community behaviour. An earlier resolution from the Tangkhul Naga Awunga Long (TNAL) in Manipur showed the approach could work across state lines. The Sangtam resolution is the confirmation.
The council, and what the resolution means
The USLP is not a symbolic body. It coordinates village councils, youth organisations, and affiliated institutions across Sangtam territory. Its decisions carry community accountability. When the USLP passes a resolution, it stays passed.
WTI’s field teams spent months in dialogue with USLP leadership — sharing information about pangolin ecology, the legal risks of wildlife trade, and the organised trafficking networks operating in the region. The community was not coerced. They were informed, and they chose.
Chingrisoror Rumthao, Field Officer at WTI, put it plainly: when communities take ownership, conservation becomes sustainable. Monesh Singh Tomar, the project lead, said the initiative is not just about countering illegal trade, but about building trust and strengthening local leadership. Both points matter. Conservation imposed from outside tends not to last. Conservation chosen from within tends to hold.
The bigger picture
Northeast India is one of the most biodiverse regions on earth, and one of the least covered by mainstream wildlife media. Nagaland, Manipur, and the states along the Myanmar border are where some of India’s most consequential conservation battles are being fought — quietly, village by village, council by council.
The pangolin has no charisma to trade on. It is nocturnal, reclusive, and rolls into a ball when frightened — which is precisely why poachers find it so easy to pick up and pocket. It has no lobby. What it has now, in the Sangtam hills, is something more durable: a community that has decided it belongs there.