Pangolin rescued from community hall in Ganjam

Berhampur: Forest officials rescued a pangolin from a community hall in Khajapalli under Ganjam district’s Khallikote forest range on Friday night. They suspected the pangolin might have entered the hall from the nearby forest area.

Divya Shankar Behera, assistant conservator of forest, Khallikote, said a team of forest personnel, reached the spot with a rescue cage, reached the village after receiving information at midnight. “We rescued the animal very carefully by laying the cage. It was healthy and there were no injury marks on it and was released into the nearby forest area on Saturday,” he said. The animal weighed around 3 kg and measured about two feet in length.

Behera added that pangolins, a Schedule-1 animal under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, are commonly found in the Khallikote forest range. He thanked the villagers for promptly informing officials, noting that the shy and slow-moving creature likely entered the hall during its movement at night.