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Thanks for posting, Mehul.

Very interesting indeed.

My son is headed for the College of Natural Resources at University of Idaho next year. He hasn't finalized a major yet, but will be pursuing forestry and or game management. This got me thinking just how immense an undertaking the development of both a hunting system {regulations, management quotas, etc} and a hunting culture {privatized, sport hunting} must be in the face of a void such has existed in India for the past couple generations. Immense? I wonder if impossible is the better term. Indeed, there never was a modern-style "sport hunting" culture even under the Raj. Whole new philosophical and legal frameworks must be constructed.

But it is great to see attempts being made to address game issues in the only way possible to save game and indeed the land that supports it; sustainable yield use. As crass as it sounds, the whole report above can be summed up quite simply; "If it pays, it stays, if it costs it's lost".

How to make it pay?

Historically, most developed countries went through a phase when game was seen as a mere competitor with domestic stock and thus treated as vermin to be ruthlessly exterminated. When this occurred after the introduction of firearms, the results were the precipitous destruction of wild species. The virtual annihilation of deer and elk in the USA and many game species in South Africa are prime examples. The fact that game can "pay", i.e. become valuable to local inhabitants and hunting can become an embedded feature of local culture has resulted in growing wild species numbers and population densities in both of those countries.

Can India pull it off?

What an amazing accomplishment it would be if they can. At its easiest, it will require superhuman patience and pragmatic associations with foreign experts, universities and hunting organizations, all of which will be required to possess not only the knowledge of their specialty, but a nearly religious commitment to, understanding of, and sensitivity for Indian cultural realities.

I fear that one observation in the paper here cited may indeed be the most important single obstacle to the successful reestablishment of sport hunting in India;

"our notorious inability to implement our regulations"

From what I have read this statement is a description of virtually all forms of Indian bureaucracy and in it exists the kernel of destruction of the plan before its genesis. I hope for India that peace, prosperity and education can combine to build a new and successful paradigm for game management and the sporting life.

Thanks very much for posting. Fascinating stuff!

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