Stop the Hunting of Wildlife in India

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

Hi Friend,

Hope you are doing great!

At the outset, we would like to express our gratitude to you for supporting our project ‘Stop the Hunting of Wildlife in India’. The project aims to address the problem of illegal hunting of wildlife for trade purposes by the tribal communities through strengthened enforcement measures and sensitisation. Tribal communities in India have traditionally hunted for meat and trophies, but the illegal International trade in wildlife has given hunting a new dimension. Your generous contribution will significantly help us realize the project’s aim. We are also highly thankful to you for believing in us, our work and for choosing to donate for this cause.

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 the Theni district of Tamil Nadu, there has been rampant poaching of Indian foxes and wolves by the community for meat consumption, medicinal use as well as superstitious purposes.

An informer network set up through a previous project had gathered evidence of 7 instances where illegal wildlife articles and body parts of the hunted foxes and jackals such as pelt, claws, and meat etc. were being sold near temples for superstitious purposes. The details of the trade were shared with the Forest Department as well. The trading group is anticipated to be working in Theni, Dindigul and Madurai and is possibly involved in the trade of leopard/sloth bear parts as well. To counter the problem of hunting for trade purposes, an RAP has been sanctioned in the region to sensitize the community about the importance of protecting wild animals. It also aims to catch the culprits involved in trading.

That’s all for today. We’ll soon follow up with more updates from the project. Till then, take care!

With regards,

Team WTI