By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR/NEW DELHI: Jindal Steel and Power Limited Chairman and former Lok Sabha MP, Naveen Jindal has all praise for Odisha cadre women IFS officer Sasmita Lenka for combaing Pangolin poaching in Odisha. Sharing news clips of thebetterindia.com, in which an interesting story about the Odisha cadre IFS Lenka has been published, JSPL Chairman Naveen Jindal tweeted@MPNaveenJindal “Impressive story of Forest Officer Sasmita Lenka, who got the UN Green Award for her work on combating Pangolin poaching in the state of Odisha,”
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed it as red and threatened species. The animal has high demand in international markets for its meat, blood, and scales, which are assumed to have medicinal properties. However, very little is known about the Indian pangolin, found across the Himalayan region, predominantly in Odisha.
The 47-year-old officer braved threats to her life to arrest 28 including eight smugglers, and rescued five pangolins, seized one dead one, and recovered five kilos of pangolin scales. She was responsible for all the legal action taken against the smugglers between August 2019 and April 2020 during her stint in the Athagarh and Khunpunni forest ranges bordering Cuttack and Dhenkanal-Angul coal belt. Recently, the United Nations recognised Sasmita’s efforts and felicitated her with the Asia Environment Enforcement Awards 2020 under the ‘gender leadership’ and ‘impact’ category.
