Stop the Hunting of Wildlife in India

Greetings from Wildlife Trust of India!

We hope this email finds you in good health and high spirits.

With this email, we share with you the updates on our project ‘Stop the Hunting of Wildlife in India’. We would also like to express our heartfelt appreciation for your generous donation to the project. Your support means the world to us and will make a significant impact in our efforts to protect wildlife and its habitat across India.

Your support for us goes beyond the financial contribution – it is a powerful statement of your trust in the work we do and a testament to your compassion and dedication to making a difference in wildlife conservation. Thank you for understanding the importance of WTI's work so we can continue to make a positive impact

The updates from the project are as follows –

Ritualistic hunting is a deep-rooted tradition among communities of South West Bengal with thousands of individuals taking part in hunting festivals at the beginning of summer every year. Hundreds of birds, reptiles (snakes, monitor lizards, freshwater turtles), and mammals such as the Indian hare, wild pig, civets, jungle cats, fishing cats, and golden jackals are killed every year in these hunting festivals. A couple of years back, a Royal Bengal Tiger was also not spared and killed by the hunters in ‘Jhargram’ district in West Bengal during the ‘Pakhibandh’ hunt fest.

Given their scale, hunting festivals can severely impact populations of various legally-protected and endangered species, thereby necessitating immediate intervention.

In 2019, WTI’s Rapid Action Project in West Medinapur district of West Bengal helped intercept 600 hunters and arrest 30 hunters caught with bird carcasses.

However, Medinapur was just the tip of the iceberg. There are other districts in the region - Bankura, Purulia and Birbhum – where ritualistic hunting is still rampant and unchecked. To counter this, a Rapid Action Project has been launched in these areas with a preventative approach to address the issue of hunting before the next season, when we hope to attain similar impact as in the West Medinapur district.

The team is planning community surveys to gather information on hunting dates and locations in the three districts. They have started communicating with a few village elders in these areas for their support to influence the community to stop hunting. We are also sensitizing and engaging with local youth and plan to compensate the most involved individuals once the project ends. The data gathered on hunting will be used to prepare an action plan to prevent hunting next season (March-May 2024) in collaboration with the forest department, police, and other local authorities.

That’s all for today. We’ll be back soon with more updates on the project. Till then, take care!

Wishing you continued success and happiness!

Warm regards,

Team WTI

Greeting to you from Wildlife Trust of India,

Hope you are doing well!

This email comprises an update on our project ‘Stop the Hunting of Wildlife in India’. Along the updates, we send to you our heartfelt gratitude for your generosity and for your trust in the work we do to protect wildlife. It is through such acts of kindness that we are able to implement our conservation initiatives and work towards our vision of a secure natural heritage of India.

Every year, between November to April, thousands of migratory birds (including waders, passerines etc.) are hunted for meat in and around Murshidabad district of West Bengal. The birds are trapped using mist nets, which are very fine nets strung between poles and placed within bird habitats. These nets are nearly inconspicuous in their surroundings, which means unsuspecting birds fly into the traps and get entangled in them. The birds trapped include several vulnerable species such as – bristled grass birds, ferruginous ducks, black-headed ibis, black-tailed godwit and common pochards.

Through a Rapid Action Project, which had previously gathered intel on such hunting activities in the region, we removed mist nets laid across a 16 km stretch in the reporting period. 343 trapped birds, including short-toed larks, oriental sky larks, and Bengal bush larks, were rescued and released in their habitat. This capture technique might sound uncomfortable for the birds, but fortunately mist-netting is claimed to be relatively less harmful for the entangled individuals. Hence, rescue and release of trapped birds shows high success in terms of rehabilitating our tiny, winged friends back into the wild. In the previous phase of the project, mist nets across a 4 km area were removed and 33 birds were saved.

The team also assisted the Forest Department in arresting two poachers caught in possession of 24 live larks. Commercial hunting is a bane for wildlife and we believe the push-back is critical to keep such activities in check. While our team is working hard for this, through regular monitoring and vigilance, we once again thank you for funding the initiative. The chirrups of free, wild birds make us happy, and we know it is the same for you.

Warm regards,

Team WTI

Hello and greetings from Wildlife Trust of India!

Hope you are doing great.

With this email, we are sharing the updates for our project titled 'Stop the hunting of Wildlife in India'. We are so honoured and grateful for your support as you chose to donate for the project among so many wonderful causes out there. This means a lot to us. Thank you so much for believing in our work.

Today's updates are from three regions - Malda, Birbhum and Murshidabad - in West Bengal. 

Tribal communities of West Bengal organise “hunting festivals” between January and June in which nearly 40,000 – 60,000 hunters participate annually. they organize "hunting festivals".

Previously in 2019, with the help of a Rapid Action Project, our on-ground partner monitored two districts - Howrah and East Medinipur – for wildlife hunting. Based on the inputs from the survey, the railway authorities and police intercepted nearly 600 hunters with arms and 34 people were arrested. Further, with inputs from local communities of the two districts, hunting festival dates and locations were recorded. Based on this an ‘anti-hunting calendar’ was prepared for the first time in the region. The data has helped the Forest department authorities in monitoring hunting activities in Howrah, East and West Medinipur districts.

This year, we are replicating the project in Murshidabad, Malda and Birbhum districts to prevent hunting of migratory birds. As per the inputs from an informer network, more than one lakh migratory birds are being hunted in the region using mist nets. The hunted birds include vulnerable species such as Bristled grassbird (Chaetornis striata), Ferruginous duck (Aythya nyroca), Black headed ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus), Black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa) and Common pochard (Aythya ferina).

To address the hunting threat to these birds, a volunteer network has been formed who will patrol targeted areas and dismantle the installed nets/traps. So far, the team has successfully removed hunting nets from an 8-km stretch and released 33 live birds. The Forest Department is actively involved to take appropriate legal action against the people engaged in the activity.

Further, consultative meetings with the locals and sensitisation drives were conducted to dissuade hunting. Anti-hunting signboards have also been installed around hunting hotspots. We hope this Rapid Action Project will be successful in reducing hunting of migratory birds in Murshidabad and adjoining areas.

Warm regards,

Team WTI

Greetings from Wildlife Trust of India!

Thank you so much for making a donation to our project ‘Stop Hunting of Wildlife in India’. With your valuable support, we have been able to track illegal hunting of wildlife for commercial purposes by a community in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Here’s an update on activities conducted during the reporting period.

The ‘Narikurava’ tribe (where ‘Nari’ means jackal, and ‘Kuruva’ means people) in south India are a hunting clan who predominantly depend on hunting jackals, foxes, squirrels and birds. Each clan has a tradition of keeping a bundle of clothes called ‘sami-mootai’ which is filled with the blood of animals sacrificed by them. In parts of Tamil Nadu, there have been reports indicating poaching of golden Jackals and Indian foxes by the community.

An informer network set up through a previous project had reported seven instances of illegal wildlife articles and body parts of the hunted foxes and jackals such as pelt, claws, and meat etc. being sold near temples for superstitious purposes. The details were shared with the Forest Department as well. Further investigation established that the hunting activities were even more extensive than what the team had thought. For a better understanding of the targeted species and the extensive hotspots, a Rapid Action Project (RAP) has been sanctioned in the region.

Through the RAP, twenty incidents of illegal trade and the people involved in it were identified. Also, the project gathered sufficient intel and baseline data on the extent of wildlife hunting in the area. Further action is being planned to prevent extensive hunting for commercial purposes as well as sensitise the community. We will soon be back with more updates. Till then, take care.

Warm regards,

Team WTI

Greetings from Wildlife Trust of India!

Hope you are doing great.

We are back with the updates on our project ‘Stop the hunting of wildlife in India’, which you so generously chose to donate for.

Thank you so much for your kind donation and for believing in our work. It is through your support that we are able to work towards our vision of a secure natural heritage of India.

In 2019, we sanctioned a Rapid Action Project to analyse the cause of wolf and other canid deaths in Saswad grasslands of Pune, Maharashtra. The project confirmed traces of Thimet pesticide in poultry carcass samples collected from the poultry dumping sites in the region. These carcasses dumped by the villagers and poultry farms in the vicinity of these sites provided easy food to the carnivores. But sadly, this has become a major cause for the inadvertent increase in carnivore deaths.

In the reporting period, we launched Phase II of this project, where the on-ground team is carrying out sensitisation activities to prevent this issue from recurring.

One awareness session was been carried out for 20 participants in the region on grassland ecosystems, their wildlife and ensuring peaceful co-existence. A short film on poultry poisoning and its detrimental effects for wildlife has also been produced to be showcased in future awareness events.

Further, operational poultry farms located within regions of wolf movement will be selected to organise meetings with the farm owners and sensitise them about the harms of using pesticides on carnivores. Pune Forest Department and the District SPCA will also be looped in along with the government veterinarians (who inspect poultry carcases) for a workshop to highlight the issue and come up with an action plan. Dumping sites will be designated where samples will be tested before discarding to reduce poisoning.

That’s all for today’s updates. We will soon be back with more. Till then, take care and thank you once again for your support!

Warm regards,

Team WTI