Indians For Guns

we all agree the endangered species in India are facing near extinction.
in these circumstances, how justified is a total hunting ban on ALL species?
Is there any other way the animal population can be sustained?
Was banning hunting in 1972 the right thing to do? We see that ban then had no effect. or is it that we(or should i say the animals) have lasted 35 yrs because of the ban?
what can we the common man, citizenz of india do to halt this destruction?
ive read a lot of views of 'educated people' who say that species being extinct is a part of evolution and natural cycle. so why bother about conservation. the wild animals cant cope and adapt to todays world so they will die. ( im happy to be uneducated and illiterate in this case.)

Hello Shooter

In my opinion, while hunting can contribute to the extinction of wildlife, hunting per se does not and cannot be regarded as the prime factor in the extermination and extintion of wildlife. This can be easily deduced by a case study of the Indian situation, if one dares to make a fair and an unbiased deduction. (As done by the Madhya Pradesh Chief Conservator of Forests Dr. H.S. Pabla IFS. His article already posted somewhere in this forum) The primary reason for the extinction of wildlife is habitat loss through deforestation and human encroachment into wildlife habitat.

A careful comparative study and analysis of the measures undertaken by the USA and India for wildlife conservation and the respective results of 20 years of the 2 different approaches to wildlife conservation should be enough to convince and convert an unbiased mind. While the USA has been immensely successful, India has horribly failed. This is also too true in the case of Mizoram. A mindless introduction of 'Teak Plantations' by the Forests and Wildlife department for the past 30 years has caused immense habitat loss and destruction of ecological balance.

Unfortunately, In India, the powers that be and the stake holders (our so called conservationists) have still not learnt the lesson and are still gleefully engaged in passing the buck.

Meanwhile the status of wildlife in India is precariously tottering at a dangerous point of no return. We are at such a point that unless somekind of pro-active and immediate action is not taken, we would loose most of our precious wildlife during the next 5-10 years or even less. Blanket bans on hunting for 20 years hasnt given us any results and it is now beginning to look like our bureaucrats dont really care!! But it looks like we have reached such a situation that a turnaround at this point of time would only make matters worse!

Maybe we have to start some kind of captive breeding and re-population of key wildlife species in our forests for the next 10 years untill we can start dreaming of hunting again.

Damn our shortsightedness!

Jonah

thanks jonah. was just going thru the ratings section of the forum and saw there has been a discussion on hunting in india last oct.. it prints mr pablas report which was very insightful. i saw that topic after starting this one. i dont know how to post that link here. can one of the mods please help me.
thanks

jonahpach";p="25196 wrote:Hello Shooter

Maybe we have to start some kind of captive breeding and re-population of key wildlife species in our forests for the next 10 years untill we can start dreaming of hunting again.

Damn our shortsightedness!

Jonah

......

This works very well in Namibia and a few African countries! The excess of certain species have been reintroduced in a controlled environment for hunting purposes,and, the money gained from this venture ploughed back into the local economy! Makes sense doesnt it !......When will we get our act together!

thanks Mack The Knife.

dear hunter,
lets not talk about namibia which in the past few yrs. has lost its reputation because of canned hunts.
in other countries , yes i agree.
but as i mentioned, in Todays india, where the tiger population is already critically low, would this hold true?

"ive read a lot of views of 'educated people' who say that species being extinct is a part of evolution and natural cycle. so why bother about conservation. the wild animals cant cope and adapt to todays world so they will die."

That`d be the "F**k you sunshine, I`m all right" attitude then ?

Taken just one stage further, the same people are pretty much the same as those `encouraging` the extinction of the Gorilla in Central Africa in order that they may indulge in mining activities without hindrance.

There`s plenty of evidence to prove that a widely varied ecology is necessary for the Planets continued health as a whole. Without diversity we might just as well live on the sterile Moon as that is what the Earth os going to look like unless much more determined efforts are made to protect large tracts of the `wild` environment and natural ecology.
Between crooked/incompetent politicians and totally selfish business people there doesn`t look to be much chance of maintaining the Planets current `reasonable` health.