My comment in the end was refeering to the forest guards. How many of them do you think can live on the salary that the government pays them?

Incidentaly A few Years back I spoke with a leading wildlife consultant in the U.S. who had just returned from Dehradun. He had been invited by the Indian government to give his thoughts on conserving forests and wildlife management, His first comment to me when I asked what would be the best method for wildlife management in India was that the country dsprately needs a hunting programme.

His reason he told me for saying that was for starters the wild life officials need more power(the local game warden here in the U.S is a lot more powerful than the police). The game laws here(U.S) are very strict in dealing with poachers and the hunting licenses here are very nominal. Ohio where I live has an extreme overpopulation of Whitetail deer who cause the largest number of car accidents, I have personaly seen them leap over my a car going down the road.

A poacher here if caught with a poached animal can loose his weapons, his house where the meat was stored, all hunting previliges and face jail time and fines in the thousands of dollars. This is for a species of deer which was on the brink of extention at the turn of the sentury due to over hunting by white settlers along with the American bison.

If I want to hunt here i buy a license for $ 23 U.S and a tag for a deer for $10 and since i prefer to give the animals a sporting chance ihave stopped using firearms and I use the bows and arrows I make myself. If i count the number of times I could have killed an animal but did not because i thought it was unethical to me or I just did not feel like killing it I would still be counting.
I see deer in my backyard regularly along with other local game,The hunt to me is more in the ability to get close to the animal not just killing it.

The hunting Industry here is a multibillion dollar Industry. Would the same approach work in India? I think not because the structure is not strong enough to stop the crooks from getting away with it, the penalties for harassing wildlife here are more severe than anything,and blocking an animals path to me is harassment of the animal. Even the possesion of a feather from a raptor such as a bald eagle is a crime here.

To me the best method of observing wild life is with a bicycle. I can approach animals without disturbing them to a large extent. I am not stinking up a clean place with petrol fumes and not littering the area with garbage as i put the tash in a garbage can in my house instead of the side of the road. To me this is nothing new as i did the same when I lived in India.

Hunting is in the human nature as long as there are people there will be hunters. Its up to us to find a balance and start making an effort.