Poaching of migrant fowls rises at alarming rate

The reason: They are exposed, largely in non-protected wetlands, to illegal killing and trade. 

Scientists, mainly from Mysuru’s Nature Conservation Foundation, during their fieldwork in 27 wetlands in Tamil Nadu’s Kancheepuram district, estimate that at least 1,700 waterbirds, mainly large- and medium-sized, are hunted every year in each wetland. They say hunting is widespread from December to April, the peak season of winter migrants. 

“This translates to hundreds of thousands of waterbirds being killed every year across India in non-protected wetlands. Such a high scale of hunting was unknown previously, and is not sustainable,” Ramesh Ramachandran, a Research Associate with the Cranes and Wetlands Programme of the Nature Conservation Foundation, said. 

In Tamil Nadu alone, the winter migrants include the ruff – a medium-sized wading bird that breeds in marshes – common sandpiper, great cormorant, common teal, red-crested pochard and the common pochard.

“All of these migratory species are falling prey to poaching,” he said. 

Policeman-turned-conservationist Ramachandran is the lead author of the research paper titled “Hunting or Habitat? Drivers of Water Bird Abundance and Community Structure in Agricultural Wetlands of Southern India” published in the journal Ambio this year. “Out of the 53 species recorded in different wetlands during the study, we found 47 species with local hunters,” he said. 

The hunted birds are largely sold to local food outlets. Co-author KS Gopi Sundar, also with the Nature Conservation Foundation, said illegal hunting practically affects all of the bird species in the wetlands. 

As a signatory to the Ramsar Convention, the inter-governmental treaty that provides the framework for the conservation of wetlands and their resources, India’s responsibilities include providing protection to all migratory waterfowls.

Most of the migratory species use the Central Asian Flyway, and India is a signatory to the international agreement to conserve migratory birds of prey. “Several of the migratory species using the Tamil Nadu wetlands are known to breed in Russia, though the intention of the study was not to confirm the breeding grounds of the birds that poachers were hunting in Tamil Nadu,” said Sundar, who heads the Cranes and Wetlands Programme.