I was a poacher and i love animals if that is not a conflict of two interests I do not know what is, My reaons for this statement along with my love for wildlife have always been a reason for conflict inside me. The reason I openly admit to poaching is the fact that old hunters make the best conservationists. Every area that has wildlife has also some of the best trackers and hunters.

The reason most men from villages resort to hunting is for food to a major extent but the number one reason is economics. I do not know what the price of meat is in india today but when I left India it was Rs 130 per kilo. How many villagers could afford that 13 years ago? Very few compare that to the price of a shotgun cartridge and you not only have meat for the family but enough left to sell to the rest of the people.

My reason for hunting/poaching was purely sport. I used to go to the villages befriend the hunters and I killed game with their help, in learning tracking and bushcraft, the result of this was that the local poachers stopped using snares which kill indiscriminately, they stopped using horrendus boobytraps to kill game and I might also add the areas that I hunted did not have any felines present which resulted in a population explosion of herbivores which ruined a lot of crops and to adress the situation the local government did not take any steps.

My suggestion to those who are in a position to do something to is to befriend the local poachers and pay them to help track game for photography. By doing so not only are you providing them with a job you are also giving them a reason to save the animals rather than kill them. The second reason why conservation efforts are useless is that the so called protectors of the wildlife are the ones helping the poachers.