Pangolins in Bangladesh: Status, Threats and Protection

Bangladesh is among the most densely populated countries on Earth, and its forests are under extraordinary pressure. Yet two species of pangolin – among the world’s most trafficked mammals – still cling to existence within its borders. The Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) and the Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) face a collision of habitat destruction, illegal trade, and under-resourced enforcement that places their long-term survival in serious doubt.

Two Species, Two Ecological Zones

Bangladesh’s pangolin fauna reflects the country’s position at the junction of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. The Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata), the larger of the two species, historically inhabited the country’s central and northwestern plains, lower-elevation forests, and potentially the fringes of the Sundarbans mangrove system along the Bay of Bengal coast. Adults weigh up to 14 kilograms and occupy a range of habitats from dry deciduous forest to scrub and even agricultural margins with sufficient termite and ant prey.

The Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla), smaller and with notably different scale morphology, occupies a more upland distribution. It is associated with the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) – the forested hill system in southeastern Bangladesh bordering Myanmar and the Indian state of Mizoram – and the mixed evergreen forests of the Sylhet Division in the northeast, which form part of the larger Assam–Mizoram forest complex. The Chinese pangolin is classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, one step more precarious than the Indian pangolin’s Endangered status.

Reliable contemporary range maps for either species within Bangladesh are almost non-existent. What is known about current distribution is reconstructed largely from seizure records compiled by law enforcement agencies, museum specimen data, and occasional NGO field reports rather than systematic surveys. This data poverty is itself a conservation problem: without baseline distribution data, it is impossible to measure whether populations are contracting or where protection efforts should be concentrated.

Historical Range and What Museum Records Tell Us

Natural history collections – particularly those held at the Dhaka University zoological collections and in British museum institutions that received specimens during the colonial era – confirm that both species were once more broadly distributed across what is now Bangladesh. Indian pangolin specimens have been documented from districts including Rajshahi, Mymensingh, and Comilla, suggesting a formerly wide presence across the country’s central lowlands. Chinese pangolin records cluster more heavily in Sylhet and the hilly southeastern districts.

The profound agricultural and demographic transformation of the Bengal delta over the past century has compressed these ranges dramatically. Bangladesh’s human population density of over 1,100 people per square kilometre leaves very little undisturbed habitat, and the forests that remain are fragmented, often heavily logged, and surrounded by cultivation. The species’ current distribution almost certainly represents a fraction of its historical extent.

Threats: Trafficking Routes and the Illegal Trade

The illegal wildlife trade is the most acute threat to both pangolin species in Bangladesh. The country’s geography places it at the intersection of critical trafficking routes. The port of Chittagong and the Cox’s Bazar coastal corridor provide access to maritime routes linking Bangladesh to Malaysia, Thailand, and ultimately southern China. Overland, the long and lightly monitored border with Myanmar – particularly the sections running through the Chittagong Hill Tracts – is a well-documented conduit for pangolin scales and live animals moving eastward.

TRAFFIC reports and IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group seizure analyses from the 2010s and early 2020s document multiple large-scale confiscations in Bangladesh involving hundreds of kilograms of scales. These seizures represent only a fraction of the actual trade: customs and police capacity to detect wildlife contraband is limited, forensic identification of pangolin scales among other goods requires specialist knowledge that most border officials lack, and corruption in enforcement chains further reduces interdiction rates.

Local demand also plays a role. In parts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, various hill tribal communities have traditions of consuming pangolin meat as bushmeat, and scales are used in local medicinal preparations. This internal consumption is distinct from the large-scale commercial trafficking aimed at export markets, but it adds additional pressure to an already stressed population and complicates enforcement narratives that frame the trade purely as a foreign-demand problem.

Habitat Loss: Jhum Cultivation, Tea Estates, and Kaptai Lake

Habitat destruction operates alongside the trade to diminish pangolin populations. In the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the traditional agricultural system of jhum (shifting or swidden) cultivation has historically been part of the ecological rhythm of the landscape, but as population pressure has intensified and fallow cycles have shortened, the regenerative capacity of the forest has been reduced. Young secondary growth cannot support the same densities of ant and termite colonies as mature forest, directly limiting pangolin prey availability.

Tea estate expansion in the Sylhet Division has converted substantial areas of hill forest into monoculture plantation – a habitat effectively unusable by pangolins. Rubber and other commercial tree crop plantations present similar problems. Perhaps the most dramatic single event in the history of Bangladeshi habitat loss was the impoundment of the Karnaphuli River to create Kaptai Lake in the 1960s, which flooded an estimated 540 square kilometres of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, submerging primary forest and displacing tens of thousands of Chakma people. The loss of that forest area removed what would have been prime pangolin habitat in the heart of the CHT.

The Sundarbans – the world’s largest mangrove forest, shared between Bangladesh and India – represents a different ecological context. Whether the Indian pangolin currently uses the Sundarbans is uncertain. Mangrove systems support ant and termite species, and pangolins are capable swimmers, but documentation of the species within the Bangladeshi Sundarbans is sparse. Rising sea levels and the increased frequency of cyclones threaten the Sundarbans’ integrity in ways that could affect any resident fauna.

Legal Framework: The Wildlife Act 2012

Bangladesh’s primary legal instrument for pangolin protection is the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act 2012, which replaced earlier, weaker legislation. Both the Indian pangolin and the Chinese pangolin are listed under Schedule 1 of the Act, granting them the highest level of national legal protection. The Act prohibits hunting, capture, possession, transportation, and trade in listed species or their derivatives. Penalties include imprisonment and financial fines, though conviction rates for wildlife offences have historically been low.

Bangladesh is also a party to CITES. Both Manis crassicaudata and Manis pentadactyla are listed on CITES Appendix I, banning all commercial international trade. In practice, CITES implementation at the national level requires customs officials who can identify pangolin products, prosecutors willing to pursue cases, and courts that treat wildlife crime with the seriousness the law mandates — all of which remain inconsistent.

Enforcement is particularly challenging in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, a geopolitically complex region with a history of ethnic conflict and where the civilian administration has more limited reach than in other parts of the country. Ranger capacity in the CHT’s reserved forests is constrained by difficult terrain, limited equipment, and staffing shortfalls. The Myanmar border in this region is essentially impossible to patrol comprehensively with current resources.

The Research Deficit

Bangladesh stands out even among pangolin range states for the thinness of its scientific literature on these species. As of the mid-2020s, peer-reviewed field studies of pangolin ecology, distribution, or population size within Bangladesh are virtually absent. The knowledge base rests almost entirely on three sources: seizure data compiled by enforcement agencies and TRAFFIC, museum specimen records from earlier decades, and brief mentions in broader regional assessments produced by the IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group.

No camera trap study targeting pangolins across a representative sample of CHT forest has been published. No telemetry data exists for Bangladeshi individuals. Even basic questions – whether both species still maintain breeding populations in Bangladesh or whether the country’s records primarily reflect transient animals – cannot be answered with confidence. This is not simply an academic gap: conservation priorities, protected area placement, and ranger deployment decisions all require evidence that does not currently exist.

Bridging this gap would require multi-year collaborative research between Bangladesh’s Forest Department, academic institutions such as Dhaka University’s Department of Zoology, and international partners including the IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group and organisations such as the Wildlife Conservation Society, which has operated in Bangladesh on other taxa.

Regional Cooperation and the Path Forward

Because pangolin trafficking in Bangladesh is inherently transnational – with supply drawn from Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar and demand concentrated in China and Vietnam – national-level enforcement alone is insufficient. Regional cooperation frameworks such as the South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN) and bilateral agreements between Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar are essential to disrupting trafficking networks that operate across borders.

India and Bangladesh share a border running for nearly 4,200 kilometres and a significant portion of both countries’ pangolin range. Coordinated intelligence sharing on trafficking networks, joint training for customs and police officers, and harmonised sentencing guidelines for wildlife crimes could meaningfully reduce cross-border flows. Similar coordination with Myanmar is more politically difficult given the ongoing conflict in that country but remains strategically important.

Within Bangladesh, community engagement in the Chittagong Hill Tracts – working with indigenous Chakma, Marma, Tripuri, and other communities as conservation partners rather than treating them solely as enforcement targets – offers the most sustainable path to reducing both local consumption and the community tolerance that allows external traffickers to operate with limited social sanction. Alternative livelihood programmes, community ranger schemes, and culturally sensitive awareness initiatives are all components of a credible long-term strategy.

Frequently Asked Questions