Wildlife poaching is a matter of food and a life style in the hills
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: May 10 2011 -

IT WAS reported that 14 deer horns were seized by troops of 31 AR at its check point in Khudengthabi on NH 39.

The illegal owners were two women, both from Maipethu village of Tadubi in Senapati District. Environmentalists and wildlife protection forces may have gasped and gaped at the horrendous act.

Ultimately it is a drama well played out in this state where wildlife meat and body parts are considered delicacies and prime export items for 'medicinal purposes'. Too much money is involved in either case and environmentalists and wild life protection forces have to sit and watch playing the second fiddle.

Environmental protection is less understood than quantum physics in Manipur. And people will corner you and ask what is wrong with deer meat, venison if you wish, and the selling of body parts of wild animals.

Confronted with such incidents many environmentalists, or at least those with swifter reaction items beat a hasty retreat and continue their fight from a safer distance.

Whatever the case, here in Manipur, it is always the environmentalists and champions of wildlife that have to lie low, except to squeak now and then to make their presence felt.

And this is founded on good logic because they too could be hunted down with as much zeal like real wild life.

The reality is that protection of wildlife and the environment are concepts which are, to put it mildly, anti tribal. To cut short, what we consider as man's best friend is considered by others as meat for the table.

And wildlife? Well its actually considered a delicacy which is getting rarer by the day. If you decide to speak on its demerits in a sumptuous meal where wildlife delicacies are being served, you must realise that you are off from the next invitee's list, outcast like a pariah, which by the way is another animal on the endangered list.

Is the lack of awareness of the necessity to protect wildlife and the environment a key factor behind the bane of reckless killing of wildlife and mindless destruction of the environment? Of course it is.

If those two women peddling those deer horns knew of facts, they as women, would have realised that the killing of the wild animals would have resulted in depriving parents to young wild deer.

One would much prefer to reason so, but then it could well be like the Walrus and the Carpenter in Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland' who were involved in a gluttonous feast of unsuspecting oysters who they had taken out for a walk.

The carpenter frequently had a handkerchief across his face as he kept eating the oysters, this act was construed as an admission of guilt of his dirty trick. However, as it turned out, the handkerchief was only a cover so that, without being discovered, he could gobble up more oysters than the Walrus.

What if wildlife hunters, when made aware of the wrongs of their actions, look upon you with watery eyes, turn aside, hide behind a shawl but only to take one more morsel of wildlife meat?

In that case, Your Lordship, we rest our case, and Your Lordship, anyway it has been a long day chasing a wild dream.