N-E a market for wildlife delicacies

GUWAHATI: Wildlife experts are aghast at the way exotic wildlife, ranging from primates to pythons, are being openly sold in markets all over the North- East to be served as delicacies by certain tribes here.
Smoked meat of different species of primates is a ‘‘special item on sale’’ at the daily New Market of Manipur’s Churachandpur township.‘‘Occasionally, raw meat is also available,’’ said Anwaruddin Choudhury, honorary chief executive of the city-based Rhino Foundation. He has come across a number of primate specimens, including the rare stump-tailed macaque and hoolock gibbon, in the markets. He identified the species from its dried and smoked tail.
‘‘The lady selling it confessed the stump-tailed macaque, priced at Rs 140 a kg, is the hot favourite, and the Kuki and Mizo tribes were involved in its trade,’’ he added.
Jalukie is a sleepy little township in the Dimapur district of neighbouring Nagaland. The market here also has weird items — like pythons — on sale.
‘‘Pythons, besides various primates, are again a local delicacy. Apart from selling various birds, snails, amphibians and insects, I also came across a dead male peacock pheasant, freshly killed, up for sale and about 70 cm in length,’’ Choudhury said.