Be responsible or risk losing species

RECREATIONAL hunting is practised under legal guidelines in several countries.

The important question to ask is whether the concerned department of the respective government has acceptable peer reviewed publishable data on the population dynamics of the target species based on which hunting tags are being released every year?

If yes, can these be made available for public review before taking such a decision; and if no, then the government is directly answerable to the public as to what exact mechanism is being followed in deciding the release of hunting tags and the numbers entitled for each hunter.

The objection is not against recreational hunting, but at the same time we need to be responsible for not overexploiting a particular species such that over the next two decades, their numbers will start dwindling beyond ecological recovery.

In the case of decimation of a species that is not a conservation concern today, will the present government take the responsibility and accept their direct and indirect role in the not-so-distant future as being a catalyst for such legal ecocide?

Recreation for one species is not acceptable at the cost of the demise of another in a civilised world. Will the concerned governments around the globe with legalised recreation hunting programmes be bold enough to tackle these questions? SAIKAT KUMAR BASU Lethbridge, Alberta Canada