Threatened Bovines Of The East

The list of endangered species of the Himalaya includes the Royal Bengal Tiger, snow leopard and musk deer, but does not include the mithun, the semi-wild cattle that inhabit the lower hills of the Eastern Himalaya. And yet, mithuns are also threatened: by changing tribal lifestyles and values, commercial encroachment, and loss of habitat. In more ways than one, the tribals' traditional way of life and the mithuns' survival are linked together. When one goes, so does the other..The range of the mithun (Bas Frontalis) extends from Bhutan through Arunachal Pradesh, U-turns south to the Chittagong Hill Tracts and Lusai hills, and extends as far down as the Arakan hills in Burma. The animal lives in the neighbourhood of shifting cultivators because it is fond of the soft and tender shoots of clearings rather than forest grasses. It takes to the high humidity which comes with the area's heayy rainfall but avoids the swampy lowlands of the foothills..There are many tales and myths woven around the beast's origin, but in all probability it is a cross between the yak and the gaur. While it is heavily built and looks ferocious, the mithun is really a very docile animal, quite vulnerable to predators,.TABOOS AND SACRIFICESIn the Indian hills, mithun cattle are used for sacrificial rituals and, consequently, they are well regarded. They are used neither as milch cattle nor as plough animals. There are taboos attached to drinking mithun milk. The local belief is that milking the mithun means weakening its offspring, making it unfit for sacrifice. The wiyus, or spirits, can be appeased only with strong and healthy mithuns..The wild cattle remain a major source of protein for the tribal people. The sacrificed mithun's meat and fat provide energy for the tribal population during the cold, weary winter months as well as during the rainy season, when the food supply tends to be scarce..In addition to being a sacrificial animal for ceremonial and ritual purposes, the mithun serves as a medium of exchange. However, modernisation and the increasing role of paper money has undermined the mithun's role as barter currency. Even today, however, many tribal families pay the brideprice in mithuns. When a marriage is settled, mithuns are transferred from the groom's to the bride's household. Families fall back on the mithun as a reserve asset during adverse times, such as a harvest failure, when the animals are traded for grain..The Bhutanese have, since ancient times, been bartering and acquiring mithuns from their neighbours in Arunachal Pradesh. The Bhutanese have never succeeded in rearing a herd of their own. It has been observed that the strong, healthy mithuns which arrive from Arunachal gradually lose their vitality and die. One reason for this, experts feel, is that in Bhutan, mithuns are used as plough animals. The domestication of mithuns in Bhutan, where they are not allowed to run wild, also seems to affect the animals' health..Mithun cattle also have prestige value. Tradi¬tionally, the Nishing and their neighbouring tribes, the Apatanis, have raided each other's mithun herds. When a family's mithun is stolen, it becomes a point of honour and moral obligation for the whole village to see to it that the animal is returned to its owner..SALT FROM THE MASTER.In their normal state in the Indian North-East, Mithun cattle are left by the villagers to fend for themselves in neighbouring woods. Once every fortnight or so, the owner goes to inspect his herd and to feed salt to the animals. So great is the mithuns' craving for salt that they often trudge many miles through heavy undergrowth to their master's "longhouse" — or tribal dwelling — for their "fix" of salt..When it comes time to shift cultivation, the villagers burn their thatched houses and move to a new site, clearing the forest for a new crop. It is all very mysterious, but the mithuns always manage to search out their master's "longhouse" and turn up for their quota of salt..The mithun's jungle world is no longer secure. Deforestation, the extension of road networks to the hills, the influence of the "modern" plains economy, and the tribal population's increasing move from shifting cultivation to permanent settlements, all have contributed to the animal's decline..Recently, there has been an influx of cattle brought up from the plains for slaughter. They have spread foot and mouth disease among mithuns, much as settlers bring unknown disease to aboriginal populations..A docile animal that is vulnerable to the slightest disturbance to its wild habitat or to its dependent relationship with humans, the mithun is at a loss in the increasing hubbub that marks the Indian North-East. Gradually, but inexorably, mithun cattle are being pushed up from their original habitat to higher elevations. Before long, they may have nowhere Left to go..~By S.N.Mishra.S.N. Mishra, a professor at Delhi University's Institute for Economic Growth, specialises in the agricultural systems of the Indian North East.