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.
