CONSERVATION CHALLENGES

Illegal hunting and wildlife trade

	Several herbivore species are killed for the pot

In India, wildlife has been traditionally hunted since ages. Perhaps such hunting was sustainable when forest cover was vast, human population was low and wildlife existed in extremely high densities. Further a complex web of social taboos, religious sentiments and hunting ethics controlled the harvest of wild fauna. Most importantly, hunting was more for subsistence and not for commercial interests.

Sadly that delicate fabric of myth, legend and religious beliefs which sustained the fairly harmonious balance between nature and man has been rent apart. The advent of technology by way of flash lights, modern firearms, automobile brake cables and steel wires (instead of vines used earlier for snaring) and anti-malarial drugs (used for poisoning wildlife) has greatly aggravated the problem. Highly deplorable form of sport hunting by the urban elite still continues in many parts of our country. Often retaliatory hunting is carried out against crop raiding ungulates or cattle lifting predators.

Today, the illegal global trade in wildlife is second only to narcotics and is valued at almost $5 billion. Therefore, the notion that hunting by local communities is sustainable seems rather simplistic in the light of these ground realities.

Various forms of wildlife are hunted for commercially valuable products like horns, antlers, pelt, bones, feathers, casques, and so on. High meat yielding large bodied ungulates and primates are the principal targets of poachers. Axis deer, sambar deer, barking deer, chevrotain (mouse deer), wild pig, gaur, bonnet macaque and langur are the most preferred species by the hunters. Even birds like pigeons, hornbills, and smaller mammals like giant squirrels, flying squirrels and civets are not spared. Charismatic animals like tigers, rhinos and elephants are hunted for the high value international trade in tiger bone, rhino horn and ivory. Thus, every part of the hunted fauna is harvested for the market.

Methods:

The stereotypical image of a hunter with a gun and driving a jeep is rather distant and cinematic. Many local forest dwellers and people inhabiting areas around forests utilize their traditional skills combined with their familiarity of the terrain to make a killing out of the already threatened wildlife. The vast global trade in wildlife has definite links to people living in forest areas. Roving gangs of poachers enlist people living in and around forest areas to act as scouts. Being financially vulnerable, elements from these local communities are exploited and misled into helping the poachers. Local people who are poor, mostly landless and socially oppressed are used as prized guides by outsiders to hunt. There are also instances where urban dwellers hunt wildlife either for meat or just for the thrill of it. Wildlife that has high economic value is basically hunted by professional poaching gangs.

Techniques employed for hunting are also as varied as the animals that are hunted. The technique used depends upon the animal to be poached. Hunting on foot at night using locally crafted muzzle-loading guns is one of the most popular means of hunting because they are far more efficient though not most conspicuous. Though many people do not own a firearm, they are either borrowed from others with whom they share a part of the bounty for lending their shotguns.

Water holes, fruit bearing trees and croplands bordering forests are favored spots for stalking wildlife. Snares using steel wires and automobile brake cables which are easily available are set on forest paths regularly used by animals to hunt wildlife. Often, critically endangered animals like tigers and leopards also get caught and die in snares set for catching smaller wildlife. Such snaring which can be termed as a "deadly silent killer" is carried out on a massive scale all over the country.

Use of lime on fruiting trees is one more common method employed to hunt birds. Baited explosives are used to hunt pigs while dynamiting is the most popular method employed to poach fish. Traditional methods of carrying out a beat and using hunting dogs are also employed to hunt muntjacs, wild pigs, blacknaped hares, etc. Many a times poisoned water is placed in broken earthen pots to execute wildlife.

Cattle kills are poisoned to eliminate predators in retaliation. Jaw traps are laid to hunt large carnivores like tigers, which have high value in the illegal international market.

>> Impact and techniques adopted

Other challenges:
>> Progressive loss of habitat
>> Commercial exploitation of forests
>> Removal of dead and fallen trees
>> Collection of minor forest produce
>> Livestock grazing
>> Fire
>> Unscientific management practices