Guwahati, May 9 -- By Kasturi Das/Mongabay

In Nagaland's Kiphire district, along the porous Indo-Myanmar border, pangolins have been hunted for decades - once due to cultural beliefs, and increasingly for trade, in a region identified as a key wildlife trafficking route.

"Our forefathers would say that if a pangolin enters a house, it was considered a bad omen or curse," says L. Kipitong Sangtam, 61, a resident of Amahator village in Kiphire district. "In the past, if someone encountered a pangolin, they would try to catch and kill it, sometimes by digging it out of its burrow."

Now, conservationists in Nagaland are turning to village councils and customary courts, to protect the elusive mammal. Though pangolin hunting is banned under ...