The East St George Hunters Group said the two-year ban on hunting is unjustified. In an interview, president of the organisation Chaitram Sonneylall said the ban would increase the cost of wild meat and poaching. He said it would also put pressure on the 14 game wardens and the approximately 200 volunteers.
Environment and Water Resources Minister Ganga Singh announced the ban during Thursday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair. The minister also said significant fines and jail terms would be imposed on anyone who breaches the ban which takes effect from October 1, the date the season was scheduled to be opened.
Sonneylall said the only real solution for establishing a databank and maintaining a credible database on wildlife is for the authorities to partner with the sport hunting fraternity so a meaningful and effective conservation plan can be put in place and be enforced, while allowing sport hunters to enjoy their sport. “While conservation groups have lobbied to protect the local wildlife population, we the sport hunters are advocating there is no justification for any ban on domestic sport hunting,” Sonneylall said.
He called on veterinarian Dr Sanjay Ramdath, who signed a paid advertisement in the T&T Guardian in support of the proposal, to provide the data confirming the decline of any of the hunted species listed in Schedule II of the Conservation of Wildlife Act.
“If there is any decrease to a sustainable wildlife population, it is not due to the effects of sport hunting, but rather, in the main, to the effects of habitat destruction and fragmentation, caused by (inter alia), oil exploration, quarrying, housing, urbanisation, highway construction, industries and agriculture.” Sonneylall said sport hunters possess the most accurate knowledge of where wildlife populations are abundant and suggested that any such survey could be done during the seven month closed season.