Today, I visited Ramsing village after two days at the forest camp about 2 km away from and 150 m above the village; it takes a good 30 minutes to get to the village from the camp. Watching a movie strangely felt like connecting with the rest of the world in those field days in remote sites. So I thought people from the village and I could catch a movie at Parme bhaiyyas home. Half way through the boring Hindi movie we were watching, I was invited to someone else's place who had taken down a barking deer or a muntjac, at about 3 pm. I was told its a Serow (Sibé) so I hurried over. When I reached, it turned out to be an adult muntjac quite big in size; they mentioned that it was about 35 kilos in weight.
The deer was shot while feeding on Castanopsis or Indian chestnut fruits and the hunter waited for it after seeing its hoofmarks. When I saw the body, as usual I was shocked but kept calm. I had two paths of conversation ahead, obviously I couldn't keep quiet, something had to be said or asked. The first path that was tempting enough for an urban human like me was to ask him why he hunted down the animal and if it really was necessary to eat wild meat when meat of pig and mithun, a feral cattle, was available, with the occasional local or brouler chicken and duck. The second conversation path was to take in details; as many as I could about this species and others he has hunted down in the last few years; perhaps the hunter was in a mood to show off his hunting skill and history. A little buzzed on millet beer, I went for the latter and the details were intriguing. This hunter claimed he was one of the five expert hunters in Ramsing; a Migam, as they call in the local Adi language.
Ramsing has had the highest turnover of muntjacs this season, since October 2007 the hunters from the village have taken down about a hundred of them, its a record for the last five years. The number dwindles between 20 to 60 since the year 2000, with the highest this season. If these numbers are indeed correct, it does seem that the number of muntjacs in the forest surrounding the village hasn't gone down. So I ask him further about Serows and Takins, 'they are both found closer to the snowy areas', he said. The Migam told me that once he had seen five muntjacs together; a family, which is a large number for a muntjac. He also reported that he had seen at least 10 more individuals in the surrounding forest. He had noted the place where the deer was feeding and posted his brother-in-law at another point and both of them sat patiently from noon till 3 pm. The outcome was a 35 kilogram or heavier muntjac.
The broth in the pot was cooking as all the times I had been here and some wild meat cooking in the pot. It also turned out that today too I was invited to have a sumptuous meal there; lucky me. I again refused the offer. However, after another two mugs of beer, I tasted a piece of the liver, tasted alright. The conversation went on further and the grandma there who actually knows no Hindi and I know very little Adi liked me and named me ‘Ruksan’ after a memory of someone she had seen before. Now at the end of her meal she offered me a piece of the stomach; an offer I could not refuse if I didn’t want to hurt her sentiments, I took it, tasted alright too!
At the end of these events enters my good friend Obit with some kids who had brought a frog alive to cook and eat. I looked at migam and said, ‘since you have 30 kilos or more of wild meat, can we let him go’ and he smiled and let him go. A small victory. Thats that for now.
The deer was shot while feeding on Castanopsis or Indian chestnut fruits and the hunter waited for it after seeing its hoofmarks. When I saw the body, as usual I was shocked but kept calm. I had two paths of conversation ahead, obviously I couldn't keep quiet, something had to be said or asked. The first path that was tempting enough for an urban human like me was to ask him why he hunted down the animal and if it really was necessary to eat wild meat when meat of pig and mithun, a feral cattle, was available, with the occasional local or brouler chicken and duck. The second conversation path was to take in details; as many as I could about this species and others he has hunted down in the last few years; perhaps the hunter was in a mood to show off his hunting skill and history. A little buzzed on millet beer, I went for the latter and the details were intriguing. This hunter claimed he was one of the five expert hunters in Ramsing; a Migam, as they call in the local Adi language.
Ramsing has had the highest turnover of muntjacs this season, since October 2007 the hunters from the village have taken down about a hundred of them, its a record for the last five years. The number dwindles between 20 to 60 since the year 2000, with the highest this season. If these numbers are indeed correct, it does seem that the number of muntjacs in the forest surrounding the village hasn't gone down. So I ask him further about Serows and Takins, 'they are both found closer to the snowy areas', he said. The Migam told me that once he had seen five muntjacs together; a family, which is a large number for a muntjac. He also reported that he had seen at least 10 more individuals in the surrounding forest. He had noted the place where the deer was feeding and posted his brother-in-law at another point and both of them sat patiently from noon till 3 pm. The outcome was a 35 kilogram or heavier muntjac.
At the end of these events enters my good friend Obit with some kids who had brought a frog alive to cook and eat. I looked at migam and said, ‘since you have 30 kilos or more of wild meat, can we let him go’ and he smiled and let him go. A small victory. Thats that for now.
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