Birds: some tales from Mizoram and around

Share a report on my Talk at BSAPs monthly indoor meet on 14^th August 2013. This features in the September 2013 (Volume 10 Number 9) issue of Pitta (Newsletter of the BSAP).

The newsletter is edited by Shanti Mani and Umesh Mani while Anjali Pande has written the text. While the images in Pitta are by Sharada Annamaraju I have  placed my slides within the text below. Many thanks to each of them as also Aasheesh and Shafaat Saab for presenting the opportunity.

Title: “Birds: some tales from Mizoram and around” – 14th August 2013

  

On 14th August the guest speaker of our indoor meeting was Mr. Nimesh Ved, who is interested in conservation education (CE) and proved to be a good resource person for an audience waiting to hear the story behind the sad state of Amur falcons in Nagaland. With his vast experience of working with local people Nimesh could explain the socio-cultural intricacies involved in conservation conflicts such as in the case of large scale killings of Amur falcons. Nimesh has worked with the Samrakshan Trust in various conservation education programmes creating networks of Community Conserved Areas in Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Madhya Pradesh over a period of 9 years.

Talking at length about the life of tribals in the north eastern regions, their customs and their impact on conservation work, he narrated many interesting anecdotes from his own work. Amur falcons come to Nagaland between October to December in a span of about 60 days. Locals mention seeing the falcons in numbers as high as 3,000 per day, and Nimesh too said he had counted 1,800 birds on one of his sightings. Though the figure of 10,000 birds killed per day is being contested, there is no denying the fact that the numbers are big. Nimesh mentioned how, one time in 2011, while travelling from Kohima he stopped for tea at Wokha and saw Amur falcons being sold openly, 3 birds for Rs 100. Fortunately the situation has improved since. People are being made aware of the importance of protecting the falcons. Every strategy that can work as deterrent is being used to stop people from killing and selling the falcons. The state government has put up notices saying that the falcon is a carrier of avian flu. Nimesh also mentioned the interesting fact that there is no name for the Amur falcon in local languages (in select villages of Zunheboto), which makes him wonder if the migration route of the Amur falcon has changed in recent times, making them transit through Nagaland now in such large numbers. Perhaps because this is not the traditional route of the bird, the local tribal culture has yet to accommodate this bird in its practices including its linguistic vocabulary. In areas around Doyang Reservoir as part of its conservation effort, the Government had tried to provide alternate livelihood (in lieu of shifting agriculture) to the locals by distributing fishing nets. Unfortunately, these nets are now being used to catch falcons. Nimesh observed that such ‘development’ can add to problems. This is where understanding of local tribal culture, beliefs and traditions becomes important while taking up conservation efforts.

Nimesh spoke about the elephant monitoring programme that was carried out for three years in Meghalaya. They recorded and monitored elephant movement in areas around Baghmara Reserve Forest and created detailed maps with exact GPS locations of the animals. During these extensive surveys Nimesh came across people who would put up artificial nests to lure Hill Mynas to breed in these nests. Hill Mynas are excellent mimics and the chicks fetch a good price when sold as pets. Nimesh mentioned a paper by the British ornithologist BrianBertram in the Journal of BNHS from 1967 where this practice finds mention. In those days chicks from these areas used to be sold in markets as far away as Calcutta. Thankfully, this practice is slowly dying out.

Nimesh had an interesting encounter with a Common Kestrel in Saiha in Mizoram; the bird used to call every morning exactly between 6.00-6.30AM. Nimesh found the Common Kestrel to be actually quite common in that area - a fire lit by Assam Rifles soldiers at a camp around sundown drew about 30 Common Kestrels in a feeding frenzy, feasting on termites flying around the fire. Another interesting incident involved what Nimesh believes was a Lesser Kestrel. Not being sure about the identification, as the photo had not come out well, he was listening to the call of the bird on his laptop, when he heard another bird responding from outside. Even when he stopped the recorded call, the bird outside kept calling - it WAS a Lesser Kestrel!

Another time, at Tuipang in Mizoram, Nimesh saw Common Hoopoes being sold for Rs 150 per bird. A forest ranger casually told him that the rate had come down from Rs 200 the previous month, and that the Hoopoe is consumed as medicine against lung diseases. Nimesh narrated how local reality dislodged his belief that people do not eat raptors. Once he saw a claw which he thought looked like a raptor’s claw. Not wanting to ask his colleague if the bird had been consumed by someone for fear of offending him, Nimesh asked to identify the bird from the claw using the bird guide. His colleague not only identified this particular raptor but also pointed out 2 eagle and 3 owl species in the bird book, saying he had eaten them, not forgetting to mention that only boys are allowed to eat raptors!

Once, Nimesh was showing a film about Point Calimere in Don Bosco School, with the intention of educating local children about the importance of protecting their environment. When a close-up of a Black-shouldered Kite came up on screen, one child took out his catapult and aimed at the kite. Nimesh was amazed by the fact that more than he could educate them, the children were educating him in local culture! Efforts to wean away tribal hunters will have to really start with the motto “catch them young”. Educating children in conserving nature can make a difference in communities where hunting, consuming and trading wild life is a deep-rooted part of culture.

Working through the Samrakshan Trust with some Government schools at Chakhang in Saiha (where Mrs Hume’s Pheasant has been reported earlier), Nimesh was once screening a film for an audience, when some members got inspired and offered to take Nimesh to a good forest. The next day, Nimesh went with them and saw that there were a lot of traps in the forest - one small area had about 20 traps made from bent-over saplings or bamboo to catch the pheasants. They found a Yellow-browed Warbler and 2 Laughingthrushes in the traps, which they released. The technique used for making these elaborate traps is part of the traditional knowledge of the tribals. Unlike the Amur falcon, great significance is attached to hornbills in local culture. Local languages have names for all the 5 hornbills that are found there. But hornbills are also disappearing, mainly due to habitat loss. Hornbills are connected with people’s lives here. There are many proverbs and sayings around hornbills; for example, one saying compares a lazy woman to a hornbill. In many traditional tribal beliefs, the hornbill also figures prominently as a symbol of valour. One tribe in South Mizoram actually considers itself to have descended from Great Hornbills.

Hornbills make very good pets. Nimesh showed photos of Chika, a female Wreathed Hornbill from Aizawl that lived in the city, rode 20 km atop a bus every day, ate puris and fruits from vendors, and returned in the evening! Sadly, she happened to wander into a neighbouring commune, where she was shot by people who did not know that she was somebody’s pet.

On the subject of environment conservation, Nimesh said that slowly awareness is increasing that environmental destruction is irreversible and whatever is left needs to be protected. People are trying to get back what they feel they are losing. Many local organizations and groups are active. Association for Environmental Protection publishes a newsletter on environment in English and Mizo languages. Jim Corbett’s books have been translated into Mizo language. Nimesh showed a very interesting video of one environmental educator who was mimicking bird calls in his awareness session while showing a picture of the concerned bird. It was a very effective method of sensitizing people about local birds. 

In Arunachal Pradesh increasingly people are using casques of fiber instead of the real casques in their hornbill headgear. According to Nimesh it is a positive point from the conservation perspective that in the north-eastern states, villages have a lot of unused land belonging to villagers, who come together to conserve forest patches and water. Villages make their own conservation rules, e.g. no water for commercial activities after Christmas, no cultivation of timber used in construction, etc. Such movements are found in many villages and so, sometimes more flora and fauna can be found on village lands than in protected areas. The one big threat to environment according to Nimesh is urbanization.

Through his informative talk peppered with delightful experiences, photos and anecdotes from the north-eastern states, Nimesh Ved helped us realise that just as humans are the main destroyers of environment today, it is only we humans who can save the environment from ourselves.