Hunting

India is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world and hosts 10% of the planet’s biodiversity hotspots. In spite of this, all the major habitat types face pressure from rapid anthropogenic factors, including deforestation, habitat loss and conversion, land-use change, mega construction projects and indiscriminate hunting. Parallel to the immense biodiversity is the high population of the country. Of the 1.3 billion population, over 200 million people live in forests and in fringe villages relying directly on forest resources for livelihood and nutritional needs. Thus, India has a dual challenge of biodiversity conservation and goals of human well-being, including food security. Among the threats, hunting is one of the primary threats to biodiversity conservation, but is also an important source of food, livelihood and culture for many indigenous communities. In this entry, the author unpacks the multi-layered complexity associated with hunting in Northeast India, through the ecological, social, political and epidemiological lens, and calls for an interdisciplinary approach to tackling hunting to ensure biodiversity conservation and human well-being.