Six injured Slender Lorises rescued from Bangalore city, black magicians suspected

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Slender Loris (Loris lydekkerianus)
Image Courtesy: Kalyan Varma

Wildlife smuggling rackets and black magicians are on the prowl in Bangalore, hints recent wildlife rescues from the city. Officials were able to save six severely injured Slender Lorises- a slow-moving, nocturnal primate- in the last two months. All of them are suspected to be smuggled into the city and were tortured by black magicians.

According to People for Animals (PFA), an NGO involved in rescuing animals, all the rescued Lorises were injured in a specific way. The activist of the NGO alleges that the nature of the wound found on these rescued animals show that they are being used by black magicians. Kishan C H, General Manager of the Bangalore chapter of People for Animals told the media that the animals are injured in the most barbaric way. According to reports, the animals were in bad shape with their arms or legs crushed or cut off.

This smallest primate, found only in India and Sri Lanka, is targeted by black magicians and folk medicine practitioners for the belief that the animal has special powers and medicinal properties.  “The belief is that whatever is inflicted on the animal will in turn happen to the person's enemy," said Kishan.

The NGO was able to spot the animals from different parts of the city. While some of them were reportedly found from a farm house near Nelamangala, one was taken to a veterinary hospital first and later reached PFA. Rescuers were able to find two of the animals at Shivajinagar. Despite the rescue efforts, three out of the six rescued animals were not able to survive. The other three were later returned to the wild with the help of forest officials, said PFA sources.

Smuggling Slender Loris

It is suspected that the trucks carrying wood from the outskirts of the city would have been used to smuggle Slender Loris at least in Shivajinagar, since it is the major center for carpentry in the city. According to M Nagaraj, Forest Range Officer, South Bangalore, the forest officials have noted that the use of Slender Loris for black magic is turning rampant in the city. “We have already come across six instances in two months. We have not made any arrests yet but are keeping a close watch on it”, he said.

Experts suspect that tribes are being paid for catching the animals and handing over to smuggling rackets. It was earlier reported that tribes are paid by photographers to catch Slender Loris to photograph it.

Hunting in Arunachal Pradesh takes unsustainable turns

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Arunachal Pradesh is inhabited by 26 major tribes and 110 sub-tribes and their hunting behavior for sustenance was sustainable till recently, but with the illegal rackets popping up and wooing the tribes, the picture is gradually changing. New studies and observations from the state reveal that these rackets have succeeded to entice the tribes, pushing them to cross the limits set by their religious and cultural taboos. In fact, it is not just the case of Arunachal. Kani tribes capturing Slender Loris for photographers in South India are just another face of the same phenomenon. However, things in Arunachal have gone too far, warn researchers who are studying the phenomenon.

Great Hornbill (Buceros bicornis), hunted by tribes in Arunachal Pradesh  despite being protected by law
(Image Courtesy: Kalyanvarma (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons)

Alarming change in bird hunting patterns

A short research communication published in the Journal of Tropical Ecology warns that the bird hunting practices of tribes in Western Arunachal Pradesh is turning unsustainable at least for some of the threatened bird species of the region.

Detailed surveys conducted among 157 hunters of three major tribal communities- Nyishi, Monpa and Apatani- in Western Arunachal Pradesh, according to the study,  show that 5 of the bird species being hunted by tribes  are Endangered, 5 are Vulnerable while 1 is Critically Endangered, as per IUCN red data list. (Though it does not exactly disclose which are the threatened species. The corresponding author does not respond to queries.)

The survey which was conducted during 2002 to 2005 period, found that a total of 53 species of birds were hunted in the area. Though only 10 to 15 percent of the total community is involved in active hunting, the survey results indicate that 18 of the 53 frequently hunted birds are conserved under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, says the study.

The data suggest that a majority (40 percent) of the hunted birds are Passeriformes which is the largest order of birds which includes rooks, finches, sparrows, tits, warblers, robins, wrens, swallows. Of the total number of bird species being hunted, 34 come under Schedule IV and 1 belongs to Schedule V of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

According to the study, the hunting is intensive during April- May during the preparation of the jhum fields for cultivation and during harvesting season of October- December period also. If the results of the study are applied to the whole area statistically, the number of birds being hunted an year by all the communities together can be close to 10956, says the study.

Hunting during the breeding periods of the birds may be more disastrous for the survival of the species, points out the study. “The species such as hornbills and hawks are hunted by the Apatani and the Monpa tribes inside the nest when birds are incubating the eggs or guarding the chicks”, it says. However, Nyishi community avoids hunting hornbills during the breeding season due to religious taboos. 

Trade beckons beyond cultural taboos

In a recent article, Nandini Velho, a PhD student from James Cook University and a research associate with National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore details her experiences while studying the hunting patterns among the tribes in Arunachal Pradesh. According to her, it is shocking to see how the illegal trade has changed the hunting patterns and habits of the tribes in the area.

While taking interviews with the tribes, many of the villagers have approached the researchers putting proposals for trading medicinal plants or some most wanted species, mistaking them for potential customers, says she.

common muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak),
also known as Barking deer

Her account suggests that barking deer meat is much sought after one in the markets and while a hunter used to kill 25 barking deers on an average during his lifetime in the olden days, presently the number is as high as 100 per hunter. Ironically, she points out that the major consumers of this illegal game meat are the government officials living in the area.

Most importantly, the attitude has significantly changed, says Velho.  According to her, as one of the hunters put it to her, people kill and eat whatever they get, if there is no market for it. Though killing a tiger is a taboo (with the particular tribal community with which the researcher has interacted), which will haunt a member of the community till death or even after that, people no more care, points out the researcher.

Double edged question

The changing phenomenon is a double edged when looked at as part of the complex question of conserving the forests of the country without harassing the indigenous people who consider it as their home. Such phenomenon can be used by groups of vested interests to win their arguments towards pushing out indigenous people from their forest home, under the false banner of conservation. While such a solution will be politically incorrect, chances are high that such cries for the blood of the tribes will be pitched high.

Nyishi tribe with a head gear of hornbill beak
Image Courtesy: Diganta Talukdar

Forests and its resources are the rights of the indigenous people. However, illegal rackets using them is a tricky question to be solved without compromising the conservation goals. Throwing out the sons of the forests will not be an apt solution. However, leaving the tribal communities let loose with their hunting spree will also not solve the issue, but will aggravate it.

Participatory conservation measures always rely upon policies and action which aim at confirming people’s participation in conserving forest and biodiversity resources. In Arunachal also, it will be the best possible solution. But to make it possible, conservationists in the country should take pro-active efforts to snap the links of the evil trading chain that work as a pushing force behind the changing hunting patterns. Best thing to do is to help tribes understand the alarming nature of the changing practices.

Indigenous people and their vast traditional knowledge have a major role to play in all conservation efforts in the country. But as the new generation of the tribes often deserting the

traditional beliefs and customs and falling prey for the outside society pressures, it is high time to make some movement in that way. 

However, it will not be ethically correct to argue that the tribes should keep stuck to their old culture alienated from the outer society. We need to find a space in between where the tribes can change and adopt their ways of life in accordance with changing times, but with clearly understanding the invisible conservation policies shaped by their ancestry as cultural and religious taboos. 

In short, proper awareness programmes carried out in this direction and collective efforts to document and preserve the traditional knowledge of these indigenous people will be the key to a politically correct answer.