Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 20
The attitude of Nagas towards forests and their resources, according to the Department of Forests & Environment, is gradually changing for the better. The department is further emboldened; now that there is “political will” on the part of the Nagaland government to protect the State’s depleting flora and fauna.
Chief Wildlife Warden, T. Lotha observed that conservation effort in Nagaland is “picking up” as the people’s outlook changes. “The perception of conservation in Nagaland has drastically changed,” commented Lotha during an event organized by the department in Dimapur on January 20. The event was organized to honour department personnel and non-profit organizations, which contributed towards the protection of migratory Amur Falcons last season. The objective now will be to capitalize on this and ride the conservation wave, Lotha averred.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, ML Rao commented that there was a time when Nagas were painted as insensitive to conservation of flora and fauna. He was referring to the bad publicity Nagaland received in 2012 when a national television news channel aired clippings of mass trapping of Amur Falcons by locals here. However, that impression of Nagas by people from outside has changed, Rao said.
It was possible because of the efforts put in by department personnel, conservation organizations and importantly, villagers, who had to sacrifice livelihood for the sake of protecting the birds, he added. “The real heroes are the villagers. They had to sacrifice their livelihood.”
While stating that Nagaland has done a tremendous job, Rao however maintained that one cannot afford to remain complacent but continue to sustain the conservation movement. The department maintained that not a single Amur Falcon was trapped last season, when the migratory birds roosted in Nagaland enroute Africa. At a single point, according to an estimate, at least a million flocked a roosting site around the Doyang reservoir. Insects are the main source of food for the bird of prey, which it hunts mostly in flight.
The roosting of the Amur Falcon in Nagaland was first sighted in Chantongya, Mokokchung around 1993-94, according to I. Panger Jamir, Additional PCCF. Bird-watchers say that it is difficult to predict the migration pattern of migratory birds as shifts in migratory behavior occur naturally. In the initial years, the birds roosted in small flocks; but by the end of the nineties the number multiplied, it was added. Owing to its “docile” nature, Amur Falcons are vulnerable to hunting, of which hunters took utmost advantage. By the turn of the 2000’s, the uninhibited hunting of the birds got the attention of amateur conservationists. Finally, in 2001, the Changtongya village council decreed that trapping and hunting of the migratory birds be banned for a period of five years. It received a lot of resistance from hunters but the decree prevailed, he said.
