#Sujit Chakraborty
In response to the Arunachal Pradesh government’s appeal, over 2,200 airguns and a few rifles were voluntarily surrendered in the past one year by people who vowed not to hunt birds and animals.
After Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh launched a campaign last year in an effort to persuade people to provide protection and sanctuary to the birds and wild animals although they have been hunted for centuries now.
The announcement of the voluntary surrender was made by the state’s Environment and Forests Minister Mama Natung on Saturday.
Natung, Chief Minister Pema Khandu, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, and top officials of Environment, Forests and Wildlife Departments have been holding numerous events regularly in the state’s far flung areas to motivate the people to protect the wild species.
“We did not enact a law and force our people. Instead, we created awareness and asked them to surrender their guns and airguns voluntarily. Surrendered guns are a big success of our campaign. The campaign should not be limited to Arunachal Pradesh alone, the entire country should follow this model for a better future,” Natung told IANS over the phone.
He said that 80 airguns were surrendered on Saturday in presence of Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, his deputy Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Chief Minister Khandu.
Yadav also chaired the 20th Meeting of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in the state’s Pakke tiger reserve.
Highly appreciating Arunachal Pradesh’s efforts, the Union Environment Minister said that within a year of this community and compassion driven programme, the state witnessed a surrender of over 2,200 airguns.
“I urge all state governments to take up the ‘Airgun Surrender Abiyan’. Arunachal offers a model to emulate with programmes like Hornbill Nest Adoption and Airgun Surrender Abhiyan,” Yadav said.
The Union Minister said that rampant use of airguns was a problem in northeastern states and Arunachal Pradesh in March last year had started the campaign which has so far yielded great results.
Forest and wildlife officials said that those who have surrendered their airguns and rifles, the state government has presented them certificates.
“The state government is considering framing suitable policies to give some support to those people who would be affected after depositing airguns and rifles to the government,” an official told IANS over phone.
He said that the tribal people’s lives have long been dependent on wildlife and forests and without realising the impact of climate change and global warming, the continued to hunt and cut trees.
“Now is the time for us to protect wildlife and stop unabated felling of forest trees, as it has greatly impacted on global warming.”
Airguns do not require any license and a huge number of people hunt birds and small animals using them across Arunachal Pradesh, unaware of the biodiversity loss.
All the surrendered air guns are being held in custody of the forest department for now.
Part of eastern Himalayan ranges, Arunachal Pradesh occupies the largest area, 83.743 sq.km, in the northeastern region and about 82 per cent of total geographical area occupied by various types of forests.
Earlier, Nagaland had started a massive campaign to provide sanctuary to the birds especially the Amur falcons, known to be one of the world’s longest-distance migratory birds as they travel up to a staggering 22,000 km a year.
Tribals of all communities have positively responded to the Nagaland government and environmentalists’ appeal and now the killing of birds in the state has become a history.
Official notifications of the Nagaland government said that Amur Falcons are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
As such, hunting, trapping, killing or selling of Amur Falcons could lead to three years of imprisonment or a fine of Rs 25,000 or both under Section 51 of the said Act.
(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)
