Wildlife hunting and conservation in Northeast India: a need for an interdisciplinary understanding

Abstract

Northeast India is rich in biodiversity and is also home to around 145 tribal communities, most practise shifting cultivation and are dependent on forests. Hunting is common and widespread in this region. Of the 50 Galliformes species native to India, 32 occur mainly or exclusively in the north-east of the country. The practice of wildlife hunting is seen as one of the significant contributors towards population decline and the possible extinction of some species. Research on wildlife hunting is at a preliminary stage in providing base line data on species presence and abundance. Hunting among tribal populations in this region is not just an entrepreneurial activity or a practice that is primarily aimed at consumption but has a larger socio-cultural link which is missing in the academic work produced from Northeast India. In this paper, I explore three aspects of wildlife hunting in Northeast India that have typically been studied separately: ecological, socio-political and cultural. I reviewed peer- reviewed and grey literature and found that there are few detailed studies of any aspect of hunting in Northeast India. There are surveys and reports that concentrate on the ecological aspects of hunting although all but a few lack detail. There are similarly few studies that have assessed the socio-economic background against which hunting takes place or have attempted a cultural understanding of hunting. I highlight the concern that conservation in this region may not be effective without a socio- cultural understanding of hunting. The paper makes an appeal to conservationists and ecologists to integrate anthropological, socio- economic and ecological strands to provide a genuinely multidisciplinary approach to understanding and addressing this serious issue.