Dholes preying on Mithun in Arunachal

New Delhi, 15 November 2000: An investigation commissioned by WTI in November 2000 in Arunachal Pradesh confirmed that Mithun (semi-domestic cattle found north-east India) are being preyed on by dholes (wild dogs), leopards, clouded leopards, and tigers in the State's Sagalee area.

Dholes are causing the most damage. Two Mithun carcasses inspected by Mr Babu had teeth marks around the anal, eye, and lip regions, body parts that dholes typically attack. The absence of claw or bite marks around the neck indicated that no large cat was involved.

The locals consider the Mithun a valuable economic asset. Lacking other income sources (notably agriculture), they meet their cash needs-- for paying bride prices, health bills, school fees, fines, and the costs of local observing traditions-- by selling the animals. Their meat is eaten on festival occasions.

The survey, conducted by Mr Narendra Babu, also led to the discovery of remains of dholes and clouded leopards killed by the locals. Angered by livestock raiders, whom they view as competitors for the same food source, they hunt them indiscriminately, particularly dholes, underlining the need for protection for both.

Predation has been triggered by three factors that have shrunk the carnivores' natural prey base, forcing them to intrude into human habitations in search of alternative prey sources:

1. Forests are regularly cleared by villagers to facilitate Jhum, or shifting cultivation
   
2. Cattle are increasingly grazing in the forests
   
3. Unsustainable hunting has triggered man-animal conflicts.

The problem has been compounded by other factors:

• Sagalee has no Wildlife Division staff, not being a protected area but a Reserve Forest, and the Forest Department only extracts timber and raises plantations
• Villagers allow their Mithun to freely roam the forests, making them vulnerable to attack
  
• A 44% rise in human population in the affected area has increased the need for food and other necessities derived from forests, increasing the pressure on forest resources and reducing prey populations, leading to increased predation.

Four remedial measures are needed on the policy front:

• The Forest Department needs to change its main focus creating an active wildlife conservation wing.
• A new forest policy that grants forest product extraction permits only to the locals and excludes outsiders, will reduce their dependence on Jhum, enable sustainable extraction of forest produce, and ensure a share of it for the locals.
  
• The locals' dependence on the Mithun as an economic asset should be reduced by facilitating their transition from sellers of raw materials (cane and bamboo) to producers of finished goods made from these materials.
• Schemes to help the locals start fisheries, and efforts to end hunting and trapping, will help regenerate wild herbivore populations and reduce predation on livestock.

These measures need to be reinforced by steps to:

• Keep Mithun in fenced enclosures at night; closely supervise their movements; and improve animal husbandry practices, to reduce losses from causes other than carnivores, so as to increase owners' profits.
  
• Draw up a compensation package for livestock losses, with easy-to-understand terms governing payments and safeguards to prevent misuse, to encourage the locals to tolerate the presence of predators instead of killing them.