No more wild animals for New Year feast in Mizoram village

Aizawl, Jan 10 : The residents of a Mizoram-Myanmar border village, Kawlbem, who organise New Year community feasts with wild animals, have for the first time feasted on domestic animals this year.

Range Officer of Environment and Forest department’s Lengteng Forest Range said the change of habit came after the department made an appeal to the people. The villagers have never had New Year community feasts without a wild animal since 1982.

The village of 268 houses and a population of 1,650 has five churches — Presbyterian Church, United Penticostal Church, Evangelical Baptist Convention, Assembly of God Church and Catholic Church — which celebrated New Year separately.

“Each church would appoint hunters to kill wild animals for the community feasts and there was no dearth of wild boars, barking deer, deer and other animals,” village council President H Thanglura said.

The village lies near Lengteng Wildlife Sanctuary where an assortment of wild animals is found and Thanglura claimed that wild animals inside the sanctuary are not killed.

“They decided to organise feasts with domestic animals this time after appeals from state Environment and Forest department,” he said.

State environment and forests minister H Rohluna, who was inducted in the government in December 2008, hails from this village.