This fledgling Great Barbet (Megalaima virens) was rescued from a hunter by an educator who works with the Nagaland Wildlife and Biodiversity Conservation Trust (NWBCT) in Doyang, Nagaland. It was just a chick when it was rescued and is currently being nursed to adulthood so it can be released in the wild. In Nagaland, such incidents of rescue are very rare.
The merciless, uncontrolled, rampant, widespread and all-year round hunting in Nagaland of almost all life-forms will, in all probability, wipe out wildlife in Nagaland in a few years. It is pursued by one and all for domestic, local and commercial reasons. There seems to be an insatiable appetite for bushmeat. Nothing is spared and nowhere. Intanki, Nagaland’s only national park, abounds with hunting camps. Only snakes are not consumed – though they are promptly killed on sight. One migrant raptor – the Amur Falcon – was being massacred in lakhs in Wokha district in winter. Blyth’s Tragopans (state bird) are captured by villages (in E Nagaland). Pastors send hunting parties for bushmeat. Real hornbill casques and feathers are sold at the Hornbill Festival.
An immediate and widespread effort should be launched by the Nagaland government (not just forest department) to create awareness towards stopping hunting.
See another CI post on Great Barbets (the largest of all barbets) being hunted in Nagaland.
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An immediate and widespread effort should be launched by the Nagaland government (not just the forest department) to create awareness towards stopping hunting.