New Delhi: A camera-trap sighting of a critically endangered Chinese pangolin in Meghalaya has drawn attention to the wildlife surviving along India’s urban edges.
A forest patch on the outskirts of a city can appear unremarkable beside expanding roads, buildings and settlements. But for some of India’s most elusive wildlife, these pockets of green can provide a vital refuge.
The Chinese pangolin, recorded by Wildlife Institute of India (WII) researchers in the Riat Laban and Laitkor reserve forests along the urban fringe of Shillong, marked the first record of the species in the institute’s study area in Meghalaya.
The finding is significant because the Chinese pangolin is listed as Critically Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List. It also highlights the importance of forests near cities, which are often overlooked in conservation planning despite supporting a range of mammals and birds.
But the sighting does not mean pangolins are adapting easily to urban life. Instead, it raises a more complicated question: how much space can wildlife retain as cities expand into natural habitats?
Why pangolins are found near human settlements
India is home to two pangolin species: the endangered Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) and the critically endangered Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla).
Pangolins are shy, solitary mammals that are largely active at night. Their bodies are covered in overlapping keratin scales, and they curl into a ball when threatened. They feed mainly on ants and termites, which they collect using long, sticky tongues. Their powerful claws help them break into insect nests and dig burrows, where they rest and shelter.
This specialised diet and their need for suitable soil and shelter mean that pangolins can survive in areas other than dense forests. Depending on the species and local conditions, they can also use scrubland, grassland, agricultural areas and wooded patches near settlements.
The forests around Shillong provide such habitats. The WII project, which is assessing mammal communities in Meghalaya, recorded other wildlife in the same forest landscape, including the large Indian civet, leopard cat, masked palm civet, yellow-throated marten, Indian crested porcupine and kalij pheasant.
The presence of these animals shows that urban-edge forests can support a diverse community of wildlife. However, a camera-trap detection only establishes an animal’s presentce at a particular location, not the size of its population or whether it is successfully breeding there.
What happens when cities expand into wildlife habitats?
The biggest challenge for wildlife living near cities is the changes that come with urban growth.
As roads, housing and other infrastructure spread, continuous forest cover can be broken into smaller, isolated patches. Animals that once moved through a larger landscape may find their routes blocked by buildings, traffic and other barriers. Smaller habitats can also mean fewer feeding grounds, fewer places to shelter and greater exposure to people.
Research on Chinese pangolins in the peri-urban areas of Dharan in eastern Nepal, published in the journal Ecology and Evolution in 2024, found that human disturbance had a negative relationship with habitat occupancy. The availability of termite mounds, meanwhile, was important in detecting pangolin burrows.
A 2024 study of Chinese pangolins in Shenzhen, a major Chinese city, found that suitable habitat for pangolin burrows had halved over the preceding decade. Researchers also recorded the animals avoiding areas where humans and domestic dogs were present.
These findings offer a warning for cities such as Shillong: wildlife can persist in urban-edge forests, but its presence does not mean the habitat is secure. Noise, human activity, domestic animals and the loss of vegetation can make these patches increasingly difficult to use.
Roads pose another danger. Pangolins are slow-moving and predominantly nocturnal, making them vulnerable to vehicle collisions when they cross roads at night. Construction can also disturb burrows and fragment the ground they depend on.
Why pangolins remain especially vulnerable
Habitat loss is only one part of the threat. Pangolins are also among the most heavily trafficked mammals in the world, targeted for their scales and meat.
Their scales are made of keratin, the same material found in human hair and nails. Despite lacking scientifically established medicinal benefits, they are sought after in illegal markets, while pangolin meat is also consumed in some places.
A study published in the European Journal of Wildlife Research analysed pangolin seizures in India between 1991 and 2022. It documented 426 seizures involving an estimated 8,603 pangolins. The researchers noted that seizure figures can reflect changes in enforcement and reporting as well as trafficking levels, but the scale of the recorded trade underlines the pressure on the species.
Both Indian and Chinese pangolins receive the highest level of protection under Schedule I of India’s Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. International commercial trade in all pangolin species is also prohibited under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Yet legal protection alone cannot secure animals that remain difficult to detect and monitor.
Why protecting forests on city fringes matters
The Shillong sighting underlines why conservation cannot stop at the boundaries of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. Forest patches near settlements can function as important habitats and links between larger natural areas.
Protecting them requires more than preserving a few trees. Urban planning needs to account for wildlife movement, retain connected green spaces, limit disruptive construction and identify road stretches where animals are at risk. Camera traps and field surveys can help researchers understand which species use these areas and how their presence changes over time.
For pangolins, conservation also means protecting the insect-rich ground and burrowing sites they depend on, while strengthening action against poaching and trafficking. Residents who encounter one should avoid handling or disturbing it and inform the local forest department.
The camera-trap image from Shillong is therefore more than a rare wildlife record. It is a reminder that the natural world does not end where a city begins. But whether these animals can continue to survive on its edges will depend on whether the forests they use are protected before development fragments them further.