Context: Once target of mass hunting in Northeast, ‘Birds of God’ are now rare symbol of hope.

About Amur Falcons

• Amur falcons, the world’s longest travelling raptors start travelling with the onset of winters.
• The raptors breed in southeastern Siberia and northern China, and migrate in millions across India and then over the Indian Ocean to southern Africa before returning to Mongolia and Siberia. Their 22,000-kilometre migratory route is one of the longest amongst all avian species.
• They get their name from the Amur River that forms the border between Russia and China.
• Doyang Lake in Nagaland is better known as a stopover for the Amur falcons during their annual migration from their breeding grounds to warmer South Africa. Thus, Nagaland is also known as the “Falcon Capital of the World,”.
• The birds are the least concern under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, but the species is protected under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and the Convention on Migratory Species, to which India is a signatory (which means it is mandatory to protect the birds).

Issue

• EXACTLY eight years ago, reports of around 1 lakh Amur falcons being hunted every day in Nagaland’s Wokha district, to be sold for their meat, had created a flutter across the world.
• According to local residents, the villagers would put up wide nets across bamboo forests on which the falcon would roost. After the hunt, the bird would be sold for Rs 25-30 a piece in markets, with a hunter earning anywhere between Rs 30,000-50,000 in a season.

Conservation efforts

• Today, these falcons symbolise a rare success story, scripted mainly by local communities. The hunting has stopped completely, say experts. 
• So much so, that the Union Environment Ministry has decided to extend the project from Nagaland and Manipur to neighbouring southern Assam, Mizoram and Tripura, where the birds are known to roost.
• According to a community leader, Amur falcons had been hunted for 40 years “But our ancestors believed that these were sacred birds. They were called Ra Ruai or Birds of God. 
• They believed that whenever they arrived in large numbers, it would portend a good harvest.

About the project

• The project was launched in Nagaland in 2013 and extended to Manipur three years later.
• The WII chipped in with a staggered satellite tagging project, choosing several birds from each area from 2013 to 2016. 
• Some tagged birds have died since, some are still transmitting data. 
• “Once the villagers realised the importance of what was being done, and their involvement in it, they were very excited. 
• Some of them even asked for the tagged birds to be named after them.

Challenges in implementing their efforts on ground

• “In Nagaland, most of the land is owned by individuals or communities — 88.7 per cent of land is privately held and 11.3 per cent is government land. So the government cannot issue a ban without the approval of the village communities,’’