Hunting Season 2024: an Overview

March – June 2024

As reported in our last post, hunting festivals cause immense devastation to wildlife. HEAL has been monitoring, documenting evidence, filing petitions, and working with state authorities since 2016 to stop hunting festivals.

Current status

🔴This year we witnessed significant progress, in particularly in Jangal Mahal districts of Purulia, Bankura, West Medinipur and Jhargram.

🔴Faloharini Kali Pujo hunting festival in East Medinipur and Howrah remained bloodless third year in a row with no hunter presence recorded.

Map of hunting festivals across southern West Bengal

WHAT MATTERED?

Calcutta High Court’s February 2023 judgment prompted by HEAL’s litigation efforts created Humane Committees in 7 districts of West Bengal which was a pivotal step to address the issue. It established shared responsibility for preventing wildlife crimes among the Forest Department, Police, District Administration, and Railways, and greater accountability through judicial oversight by the district judge and civil-society representation.

Therefore, last year, meetings were held to strategize a plan of action which resulted in greater presence of police for on-ground monitoring, vehicles of hunting parties were seized, and active campaigning was conducted in villages close to hunting grounds to discourage participation. This year too, authorities had to maintain these efforts despite the election scenario.

SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENTS

🔴 Hunting festivals at Pakhibadh, Gopegarh, Arabari, Joypur, and Ajodhya Hill, five of South Bengal’s largest events, saw only 1,500 to 7,000 hunters in 2024, a fraction of the numbers seen 4-5 years ago.

🔴 More than 10 smaller festivals were called off.

🔴 While we did find poached wildlife at the Joypur festival in Bankura, unlike previous years, this was followed by an urgent meeting convened by Bankura Humane Committee to discuss lapses and preventive measures to stop future hunts.

GAPS

While these developments are encouraging, we are still far from achieving our target – zero hunting in Jangal Mahal. This year we witnessed the arrest of a hunter who killed a white-breasted waterhen from the same area in Jhargram where in 2018, the hunters killed a tiger with no legal repercussions. Thus, we take some satisfaction in knowing that we have set the ball rolling for long-term policy changes to end hunting festivals in South Bengal and we will continue pursuing our goal.