HUNTING IS BANNED BY LAW, YET PERSISTS IN NORTHEAST INDIA. ANIRBAN DATTA-ROY PROVIDES A CLOSER LOOK AT THE PATTERNS OF HUNTING, WITH DETAILS OF NUMBERS, SPECIES AND REASONS
“The ban on hunting doesn’t mean anything. We will stop for a few days and then everything will be the same again,” said a hunter in a remote village in the mountains of Northeast India. Although the ban he was referring to was an official notification in some districts only, it appeared symptomatic of the blundering approach to controlling hunting in Northeast India that has existed for long.”
Hunting in tropical forests is increasingly being recognised as one of the primary threats to biodiversity conservation. Considerable research has gone into illustrating the ecological effects of unsustainable hunting and the consequent changes in community composition of key faunal species. This can eventually result in ‘ecological cascade effects’, where the loss of top predators due to hunting leads to secondary extinctions of prey species. The resultant effects do not stay restricted to animals in the forests. Changes brought about by unsustainable rates of extraction (bordering on causing local extinctions) would mean a loss of ecosystem services for humans too. It would also mean a loss of valuable natural resources for forest dwelling people.
Northeast India, part of the Eastern Himalayas, is an area of exceptional faunal and floral richness and is designated as a global biodiversity hotspot. This area lies adjacent to Southeast Asia and bears close similarities to it in tradition, ethnicity and culture.
I conducted an exploratory study on hunting in the Northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Refraining from adopting a purely ecological approach, I instead addressed cultural and institutional factors that affect the persistence of hunting in Northeast India. The survey proved invaluable in laying the groundwork for a better-informed long-term study. The study was affected to a great extent by the official notification issued to villages banning all forms of hunting activities at the outset of the survey. Hunters in most places were apprehensive of speaking about their ‘banned’ activities and initially refused to cooperate.
The survey attempted to uncover hunting practices and the motivations behind village-level hunting in Arunachal Pradesh. This was done with four tribes—Monpa, Sherdukpen, Apatani and Adi. The Monpa and Sherdukpen belong to the Mahayana Buddhist sect and provided a contrast to the Apatani and Adi tribes who are animistic in their beliefs (Donyi-Polo religion). To allay fears stemming from the ban, I desisted from taking pictures or recording names of those who seemed particularly wary of speaking about hunting practices. This became especially necessary due to the timing of the government notification banning all forms of hunting two weeks before my arrival for the survey.
The study focused on areas where hunting occurred almost entirely in community-managed forests. A range of mammals was reported from these community forests with a total of 39 species being identified by hunters across all field sites. Among them, 14 were common to all areas. Among the animals hunted, the barking deer and wild pig are the two species that are most commonly hunted. The presence of endangered and rare animals such as the Asiatic wild dog, the Asiatic black bear and the Malayan porcupine indicates that there still exists a great deal of wildlife in the human-use areas around the villages. Much of this is possible because of the presence of a matrix of community forests and jhum (shifting cultivation) fallows that support many faunal species. In the context of the current debate over ‘inviolate areas’, this is an important reminder of the faunal wealth that still exists outside the protected area network. It also serves to highlight the effectiveness of traditional institutions to manage forest commons in ways that further biodiversity conservation.
Commercial hunting was reported by very few respondents, and hunting for crop defence was also low. It is likely that some of the respondents may not have reported accurately on commercial hunting for fear of official reprisals in view of the newly introduced ‘ban’. However, in later discussions it was revealed that products such as bear gall bladder, musk deer pods and takin skulls have a ready market across the border, while the sale of wild meat within the village is not uncommon.
Hunting during religious festivals and hunting to provide gifts were the other reasons provided. Community hunts that are organised during certain religious festivals are common across most tribes and in some cases a specific species (such as sambar, barking deer or orange-bellied Himalayan squirrel) is hunted. This form of hunting occurs infrequently, about four to five times a year, and the hunts are stopped as soon as the desired animal is killed.
Almost half of the respondents said that they preferred wild meat over domestic meat while only a quarter of the interviewed hunters said that they had no preference. The reasons for the preference of wild meat ranged from taste and tradition to more practical considerations such as the ability to preserve wild meat for longer periods. The source for this wild meat is primarily through hunting by individuals rather than buying. Buying of meat for consumption too was restricted within the village and no respondent reported buying meat from outside the village.
Hunting is almost entirely reliant on modern technology today. Traditional forms of hunting with bows and spears are virtually non-existent and except for one individual, all respondents said that they hunt with guns (in addition to traps and snares). The ownership of guns too provides a great advantage to the hunters as otherwise they are obliged to share a large portion of their kill with the person from whom they may have borrowed the gun. The use of new materials is evident in traps and snares too where metal wires are used instead of the traditional snares made of hide or yak-tail hair. A very large proportion of the hunters who were interviewed had their own guns. In areas like Shergaon in West Kameng, the passage of a major highway has taken gun ownership to surprisingly high levels (there are reportedly close to 150 guns for 130 families)!
Various taboos are also attached to killing of different animals and are found among all tribes. This is most prominently observed in the reluctance of the Buddhist tribes to kill primates. Various reasons were put forward by hunters in the case of primates, some of which were related to their similarity in physical appearance to humans, bad taste, as well as incidents when killing of monkeys resulted in disease outbreaks or death for villagers. The reasons for sparing certain animals are hard to locate and may be due to behavioural patterns and morphological characteristics of the species, the belief that they are toxic, cultural perceptions of the animal being part of creation myths or even representing religious symbols. These are, however, important inbuilt control measures that serve to regulate the intensity and magnitude of hunting.
The government notification on banning hunting hardly served any purpose as the implementation of such bans are logistically impossible for the concerned departments in such remote areas. Hunters stated that this ban would not stop them from hunting and they would continue to do so, as this is what they have always done. The ban disregarded the fact that hunting has deep historical, social and cultural connections among the people of the area. Such token bans in fact run the risk of criminalising a social practice and merely moving it underground, where it will continue to exist, free from local institutions as well as the government.
The biggest threat currently is the gradual commercialisation of hunting in Arunachal Pradesh, with growing demands for wild meat from urban centres, and for skins and other body parts from across the border. There are hardly any checks on the sale of wild meat in urban markets and token bans appear to serve no purpose. This threatens to cause dramatic changes that may affect wildlife populations as well as the people who depend on them. In view of these impending changes, it becomes even more imperative to equip the local institutions to tackle these problems on their own. An effective partnership could dispel much of the distrust that exists between both sides and provide a more pragmatic approach to controlling hunting in Northeast India.
Anirban Datta Roy is a PhD student at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, India. anirban@atree.org
Illustrations: Prabha Mallya
Photographs: Anirban Datta-Roy