How do you stop people from hunting? By advising them to hunt.
In March 2021, Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Minister Mama Natung made an impromptu announcement in the 60-member Arunachal Pradesh Assembly that he would wean people away from hunting “rare animals and birds getting rarer by the day”.
For a second, he thought he had made a mistake. Stopping people from hunting — a tradition for many among the 140 tribes and sub-tribes across the 83,743 sq. km State with about 80% forest cover — was easier said than done.
“My mind said it was impossible but my heart said otherwise. Then and there in the House, I decided to launch an airgun surrender programme from my village Lamdang [near Seppa, the headquarters of East Kameng district] because charity begins at home,” Mr. Natung told The Hindu.
He knew asking people not to hunt would be counter-productive. He advised them to maintain the tradition, but in the old style — with bows and arrows or any other weapon their forefathers used.
“With a bow and arrow, a hunter can at most kill six birds and animals, mostly for food, in a year. But an airgun makes him hunt 200 or more animals in a day, and that needed to stop because we have been losing our fauna, many not found anywhere else on earth,” he said.
The ‘reverse sermon’ worked. On March 17, about a week after his announcement in the Assembly, villagers of Lamdang gave up 46 airguns. The Airgun Surrender Abhiyan, recognised at the UNESCO’s International Conference on Biosphere Reserves in Malaysia in November, took off.
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Almost 21 months later, a total of 2,467 airguns have been handed over to the State’s Forest Department. Nine double-barrel shotguns and 0.22 rifles, and 13 power chainsaws — a sought-after tool for felling — have also been surrendered.
“I know it is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many, many more airguns and other firearms still in the possession of people across Arunachal Pradesh, but at least we have made a start,” Mr. Natung said.
Winged farmers
The anti-airgun movement entailed travel for the Minister and Forest officials. During several such tours, villagers were apprehensive about not having enough “good food” to eat if they gave up bushmeat.
“I kept telling them their fears were unfounded because alternative meats are available in the markets these days, even in far-flung areas, thanks to the Pema Khandu government’s push for poultry, piggery, and other farm initiatives,” he said.
Mr. Natung and his team also went about explaining how the birds and animals provide them with agricultural services and help them exist.
“In the higher altitudes, most people rely on the jungles for leaves, barks, roots, and fruits for consumption. During campaigns, we ask the villagers if they or their forefathers planted the trees that meet their needs. We then educate them about the birds and animals who act as farmers by pollinating or dispersing seeds to create forests,” Mr. Natung said.
Before long, people began organising airgun surrender ceremonies locally. In central Arunachal Pradesh’s Pasighat area, for instance, some villagers shunned airguns after realising pests had taken over their paddy fields because the birds, their nemesis, had been hunted out.
“The farmers told us their output dropped from 50-60 bags [a sack of usually 35 kg of grain] per plot to 20-30 bags because of pests which the birds used to prey upon. They are now hoping for the birds to return in large numbers,” he said.
In Lamdang and adjoining areas, the chirps of birds and the squeaks, barks, and howls of animals have virtually replaced the gunshots. “It feels like the good old days,” Radhe Natung, a local resident said.
