MANAGEMENT OF MITHUN (Bos frontalis) WITH THE COMMUNITY'S CONCERTED EFFORT BY THE GALOS OF ARUNACHAL PRADESH

Mithun is no longer a wild animal, nor is it completely domesticated. So to say, it is a very decent and faithful wild animal. It requires a specific natural habitat consisting of sufficiently densely wooded forests, gentle slopes, water-sources and away from human settlement. It flourishes and thrives well in areas that afford to it abundant fodder and cool and wet environmental conditions. The animal prefers to stay in its original, local habitat as long as the area can sustain the population. That is to say, the animal is not normally migratory in nature, but sometimes some mithuns migrate to distant forest areas. Through the ages, the animal has occupied a central position in the socio-cultural life of the indigenous communities of Arunachal Pradesh. The people have been engaged in mithun rearing activities since long back. Mithun is considered as an asset. However, the mithun rearing is a very tough task. It’s a tedious and complicated affair. So, not all people can engage themselves in this job, apart from their livelihood activities. Generally, the village leaders, clan heads and rich people used to afford to won and rear mithun by virtue of their being capable of meeting the required man-force and other resources. Mithun owning and possessing has added to the prestige and status of the individual concerned in the society or community. As such, high degree of importance is attached to mithun rearing.
The urge for possessing one’s own mithun seeped into the blood of people belonging to every walk of life with the passage of time. The Galos of Arunachal Pradesh inhabiting on the western tracts of the giant, turbulent and mighty river- the ‘Siang’- wooded with the tropical and sub-tropical forests were very fond of mithun related activities. The fact that the animal requires special natural habitat and the rearing and the process of domestication would demand proper care and attention relatively perennially led to evolution and development of a new community-sponsored, community-based and welfare-oriented arrangement designed and devised incorporating various mechanisms for sustainable utilization of the resources at the disposal of the village with particular attention to mithun rearing. This arrangement is called “the Lura”. With this arrangement into practice, the community has taken upon itself the responsibilities of management and look-after of the mithuns. Following is the characteristics or salient features of the Lura:
Ø Lura is a forest area that is earmarked by the community within the community forest.
Ø Lura is a temporary captivity in which the mithun population of the concerned village is confined for a certain fixed length of time during a particular season of the year.
Ø Lura is basically a management approach to utilization of the mithun resource with a tinge of rearing as well as conservation outlook.
Lura is a community forest
Lura refers to ‘a forest area within a village community forest especially earmarked by the community with the main objective of harbouring mithun population of the village together, irrespective of individual ownership’. It’s not markedly different from rest of the forests in its vegetation type, canopy type and species composition, yet it’s a separate entity in that the practice of shifting cultivation is regulated by the community. Besides, such an area is so chosen wherein majority of the mithun population of the village is found. In addition, such areas are identified and chosen for the lura which afford the best of the natural conditions required by mithuns. In nutshell, lura is the forest that has been identified, preferred and chosen by the community as the best area with its natural conditions for mithun rearing in its natural habitat.
As the animal is concerned as an asset, its management and conservation are given high degree of concern, attention and importance by the individuals in particular and the community as a whole. Once the area is earmarked, the community prevails upon the activities of the individuals of the village in the lura. The area is kept relatively free from human disturbances and interferences.
Lura is a Temporary Captivity
Lura is basically a community-sponsored, forest-based and mithun-oriented temporary captivity within a community forest. The community-identified and -earmarked forest is extensively fenced all through the boundary and finally closing the area from rest of the forests. The fencing activities are started as soon as winter season ends and it takes near- about 1-2 months to completely fence the area, but with entry points or gates at many locations. Every household of the village must contribute its share in terms of labour, manpower and finance all through the fencing operation. However, individuals without mithun are entitled to some relaxations in number of days for fencing and monetary contribution. The fencing materials used are bamboos, small poles of less economical species, etc. After the completion of the fencing of the area, the mithun population of the village, irrespective of individual ownership, is put or kept in it for certain length of time during a particular season of a year, particularly, for 4-5 months during Mar-July. The mithun-owners must bring their animals into the area as soon as possible, wherever they may be.
This captivity is synchronized with the cultivation season of the slash and burn practice of the land use system prevalent in the area. This serves as an effective measure to control and curb the incidence of damage of crops by the mithuns. Though every household or family puts fencing along his portion of the boundary of the cultivated area, sometimes, the mithuns, not being put in the captivity and straying in the forest, try to intrude into the cultivated area and, on being successful in their attempts, damage the crops and ruin the labour, hard-work and smile of the people. This is the reason that the captivity is synchronized with the shifting cultivation and it is made mandatory for the mithun-owners to put their animals into the captivity in time.
Lura is a management system for mithun rearing
Lura is an arrangement evolved and developed by the Galos of Arunachal Pradesh in order to devise a mechanism to domesticate the mithun and also maintain a good proportion of mithun population in its natural habitat. Lura has served not only as captivity to restrict and regulate the activities of mithun, but also as breeding place where mating has been facilitated by human efforts. Further, periodic visits by a group of 2-5 persons of the village, as mandated by the community, to the area in order to check the condition of the fencing, predation of mithun by predators like wild dogs, leopards and tigers, outbreak of any disease in the area, and to provide proper care and medicines in case of any disease infection to mithuns, and so on help monitoring of the lura effectively and easily, which, in turn, has ensured further steps toward domestication of the mithun.
Lura is sustainable resource utilization with a tinge of conservation of natural ecosystem
The maintenance of the forest of the area in its natural condition in order to provide the mithuns their natural habitat has actually led to conservation and preservation of the micro-environment of the area. Regulation on shifting cultivation, hunting activities except for predators, and extraction of timber, except for the needs of agricultural implements, fire-woods, construction of house, etc. from the lura has made the area a relatively resource-richer, a kind of resource pool compared to the surrounding forest. The lura as such is not confined to a particular location perennially, and it is changed after certain time interval such as 2-4 years. In the process of selection of site and subsequent change of the site, the extent and size of the area is not changed abruptly; its position is continuously oriented, moved and aligned toward new areas having congenial and favorable conditions for the mithuns through the entire tracts of the community forest. That is to say, boundaries on the side of direction of change are gradually merged into new area and the boundaries on the rearward side are, simultaneously relinquished. The area ceded on the rearward side is most of the times, more or less, equivalent in extent to the new land incorporated into the lura. The reason that the portion of area left-out from the previously held lura land was under some sort of community protection and restriction against extraction of resources, particularly, timber harvest and shifting cultivation continuously for 5-6 years, before being curved out as a natural consequence of positional orientation of the lura to move into other area, has actually enriched its resource potentialities over the years.
Evidently, such area serves as a resource-pool. It is now without any such restriction anymore and the activities such as hunting, minor forest produce collection, etc. are allowed. The land owner(s) of that left-out portion can now harvest the timber and also do shifting cultivation. On the other hand, new area included in the lura area will come under the purview of the lura regulation and restriction. In the long run, the lura gradually covers the entire community forests belonging to that particular village, by merging its boundaries into new locations and leaving or retreating from the other. In short, lura is a mobile captivity cum rearing place for mithun which simultaneously takes care of the forest resources of the village. It is a nice arrangement that facilities sustainable utilization of the resources at the disposal of the village with the spirit of the collective responsibility.