Hunting in India

[nagarifle]

one can bury ones head in the sand and make believe everything is alright. but then that is your choose, we are less then perfect and live in less then a perfect world. one can dream but unless you are willing to see your dream come true then you are just a time waster with head stuck in cookoo land.

[goodboy_mentor]

@goodboy_mentor,
I really did not get your point. Animals die naturally, may be with lot of suffering. But does it mean that we should go and shoot them?? Nature doesn't have life, feeling etc etc... and it is not an entity at all. But we are not nature.......

The answers are in your questions itself, when you talk about human population explosion and contention that we are not nature. In order to understand any problem one needs to keep away personal emotions/biases away and needs to understand the problem objectively. We are not nature but definitely a part of nature and hunting for food is one of the methods used by nature to maintain balance between various species. Humans have been hunting animals for food since millions of years and it never created any problem until the human population explosion that took place few decades ago with advent of better medical care(humans started tinkering with nature) which resulted in reduced mortality rate. Politicians vigorously ensured better medical care to bringing down mortality since that could fetch them more votes. But did not pay much corresponding attention to bring down birth rate, as it did not translate into higher votes from ignorant/illiterate population. I would like to illustrate change of situation with a real example:
As per my grandmother, before independence selling of milk was considered a sin in her village. Excess milk was never sold but donated to the poor or distributed to neighbors. Rearing of cattle was not a financial liability since cattle could graze off the common village land. Even when cattle became old and were unable to produce milk they were not sold to butchers, since they did not become a financial liability as they could graze at the common village land. But with the population explosion things changed, every inch of land was required to grow crops to feed increasing population, the common village land for grazing cattle was turned into cultivatable land and rearing of cattle became a financial burden. Today every house in the village is selling milk to the trucks of "Mother Diary" or "Nestle" that come to collect milk every morning. Cattle rearing has turned into a "business" and greed has taken over. During summer season cattle are even injected with oxcytocin hormone injections to get higher quantity of milk production, even if it is toxic to humans and also means pain to the animal by the way of artificially induced uterine contractions to produce milk. When the animal is past it's milk producing life it becomes a financial liability since common village land for grazing cattle is not available and fodder has to be purchased. Hence it is sold of to butchers.
Hence as per my understanding, hunting in itself is not the problem, it is the human population explosion that is the problem as it has caused deforestation/shrinkage of natural habitat of animals and village/tribal people who have been living harmoniously as per the laws of nature since times immemorial.

[drifter]

This topic has me laughing, no offence to anyone.

Dear Aditya,

Man is a hunter gatherer and some have evolved into vegitarians, In India the problem being explosion of human population and forests being cleared for agriculture.

I think somebody implied in earlier posts mentioning that hunting is done from SUV's, with big spotlights and without rational. I beg to differ people who hunt legally abroad have specifications to follow and stick to it, and real hunters dont hunt sitting in the comfort of their SUV's. I am sure shooter does not hunt phesants from his SUV. There is the element of stalking, tracking, brainwork, hardwork involved in a hunt. Guns are not the only weapons used for hunting, trapping, bow n arrows, poison darts, etc..., list is endless. Hunting keeps the ball rolling in the art of balancing the universe's diverse ecosystem. Hunting exists even in the anoimal kingdom. I hope I make sense here.

regards Drifter.

[SMJ]

What an incredible post, I am really late to join the party on this one (but then again I only discovered this wonderful forum in late 2014)- some pertinent and amazing points of view
Since we are already in such as massive imbalance with nature here in India, opening legal hunting is a pragmatic and practical solution! Question is India being India - will the discipline be followed? What I mean is that if a license is obtained for 1 tiger hunt and lets say 3 are shot what happens then? I am not saying its easy to do this but it is possible. The license for a tiger hunt can only be obtained by someone with money so now they would have a legal reason to do what they do and get away with callous acts such as the example I gave. I am sure this will be noticed but the damage would be done as with an animal such as a tiger each life lost is precious. On the other hand, whilst this is the down side, the other question is that will this be worse than the damage already being done as of today by way of illegal poaching?? In our case, maybe the government can consider starting off with the herbivores to bring in the initial fund flow before moving on to carnivores?
I do not have much faith in the forest departments of our country to protect our ever declining wildlife but certainly have far more faith in the villagers and tribals who live around jungles - if we can show them economic benefits!! Indians by and large have a great respect for wildlife as it is tied into many different faiths and religions we follow- I am quite positive that a lot of villagers or tribals probably condone poaching anyways but it brings in money! This will totally stop if the economic benefits are passed onto them- an excellent reason for them to protect what they all probably love and respect anyway!
Legal hunting will ensure that money starts flowing in the right way to the forest department and to the indigenous people living in and around the jungles- this will bring a brand new meaning to the word conservation- in action and not just words written on a piece of paper! I also realize that advocating conservation this way (legal hunting) is easily confused with blood lust rather than a love for animals. But as has been pointed out over and over - this method will be the only way to ensure we conserve what we have BECAUSE of the love for wildlife in the bigger scheme of things. To the anti hunting lobby I say that currently conservation is only on paper - the ground reality is far removed from what is being written in the media regarding "increasing number of tigers" or "increasing forest cover" so why not be open to the idea of something that is tried tested and has produced RESULTS everywhere else it has been introduced.
I am also averse to shooting anything unless its for food. However, if legal hunting were ever opened the government can hopefully consider a slab for people (like me) who do not want to shoot with anything other than a camera BUT are happy to pay just for the thrill of being able to carry a rifle through the jungle

[nagarifle]

hunting wild animals are banned.

what about shooting kept birds?

[Ramandeep]

Recently MP govt. has allowed hunting of nilgai in some parts at a price of 5000/- per animal, apparently they have changed the name of nilgai and mentioned it as Rojad so that when anyone hunts nilGAI no one's sentiment is hurt.

Added in 1 hour 12 minutes 7 seconds:

hunting wild animals are banned.

what about shooting kept birds?

I am not sure about legality of shooting kept birds, I think butchering them won't be illegal

[marksman]

If only Indian sportmen stuck to the rules laid down by our colonial masters,( fair rules at least in this case) there would have been enough game left for everyone to hunt till this day, including the Stripes. I have been a member of the shikar group when Tiger too was a fair game with proper ducuments. I have seen the misuse of this trust with my own eyes, of course the forest officers were a big help as well. I was too naive to understand all that happened then. With official permit for one Tiger, the hunters would try shooting as many as possible within the alloted blocks. Often not reporting a couple of Leopards that they invariabily shot. Still worse,They often did this to be one up on the rival hunters within the same city or state. Shooting 10 Cheetals + a few Sambhars+some more assorted herbivours was a usual bag in a NIGHT OUT.
It's a pay back time I guess.

Marksman

[dev]

Now...now all you bambi loving...bambi eating guys play nice. Don't scare Rip van Winkle away. We haven't had such a debate for a while.


Regards,

Dev

[nagarifle]

Indian laws are there to be bent broken, how do we know this? the one who are suppose to enforce them are do it them selves.