Khonoma, Oct. 13: At the birthplace of the legendary A.Z. Phizo, Nagaland is building a model for wildlife conservation.

With the harvest season approaching, the Khonoma Youth Organisation is busy issuing ?permits? for hunting down select wild animals that are damaging standing crop.

In a society where hunting is a way of life, Khonoma?s method ? of imposing fines on hunting ? is paying rich dividends. ?Earlier, people would just go in and kill the marauding animals. They were, of course, hunted for their meat. Now, all that has changed,? said local tourist guide M. Michael.

Earlier this year, the village youth ?arrested? three men for hunting a bear. They were looking for its innards, used as medicine and sold at exorbitant rates.

The culprits thought they would merely pay a fine to the village youth organisation and be let off, only to book a profit on the haul later on.

But they were later handed over to the police for official action.

The Khonoma village youth have banned hunting, levying a fine of Rs 3,000 for killing each wild animal. ?This time round, the village decided to make changes and imposed a fine on every individual who is found hunting, even if he has not killed any creature,? Michael added.

The surrounding forests are home to a variety of birds, including the state bird, Blythe?s tragopan, and animals like barking deer and wild boar.

The number of wild animals has dwindled to almost nil owing to indiscriminate hunting in the area. The case was similar to many other places in Nagaland, where hunting went on undeterred because ownership of forests is private or community-based.

Awareness has heralded many positive changes. Hunting has stopped and wildlife numbers have steadily risen.

However, villagers have begun to suffer, as wild boar raid the fields at night.

So the youth organisation introduced the rule that permission would have be sought from the Khonoma village youth organisation so that fields could be protected.

?Till now, we have received about 20 requests from people to hunt down marauding animals such as the boar,? said Aca Khate, secretary of the youth organisation.

But Khate conceded that for many villagers, this was an excuse to hunt and consume the meat of wild animals.

There is little which local environmentalists can do in this case. ?We have achieved a level of awareness, but we have to wait for a longer duration so that the fruits can be reaped,? said a local youth and farmer, Vibu Iralu.

The village has a lot to offer tourists. Besides being the birthplace of Phizo, Khonoma is also known for its firm resistance to invading British forces in the last century.

The Green Village project, worth Rs 3 crore and granted by the Centre, is making waves. A circular road has been built within the village for tourists. All the roofs have been painted green.

Green trash-bins have been placed at regular intervals all around the village. Little children can be seen picking up garbage and putting them in the bins as they played.

?When we went through the Baral range for treks with tourist operators from Delhi, sightings of deer and bear confirmed our place among nature tourism destinations,? said Michael.