1. Pangolins and red pandas are some of the most trafficked animals in the world. Both are distinctive mammals that are endemic to the eastern Himalayas, and both are threatened by a combination of geographic and socioeconomic factors fuelling illegal wildlife trafficking.
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2. In 1992, Singalila Wildlife Sanctuary (SNP), part of the eastern Himalayas in Darjeeling, West Bengal, was declared a national park. In 1994 SNP was declared a major wild habitat for red pandas.
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3. Official figures on the number of red pandas and pangolins are not available, as SNP authorities and the Darjeeling Wildlife Division are reluctant to make the information public.
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4. But, according to media reports, the number of wild red pandas across SNP and Neora Valley National Park in Kalimpong is 40-45.
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5. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the red panda as endangered, and India is estimated to have 5,000-6,000 red pandas in total.
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6. In 1994, Darjeeling Zoo started a red panda conservation breeding programme. By 2003, it had 22 red pandas and decided to release two zoo-born females into the wild.
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7. Two more females were released in 2004 and a further four pandas were supposed to be released in October 2019. Despite these efforts, the red panda population in the national park shows no signs of increasing.
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