Civets and their traps in Saiha ...

Going through the list of species we have sighted here my eyes stopped wandering on coming across civets.


I have come across the Small Indian Civet (Viverricula indica), Large Indian Civet (Viverra zibetha), Common Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) and the Himalayan Palm Civet (Paguma larvata) during my meanderings in Saiha. The Large Indian Civet crossed the road in front of the Sumo I was travelling in, very near to the bridge at Kawlchaw, with a rat grasped firmly in its mouth (Mizoram was then under the spell of bamboo flowering - Mautam) while the Small Indian Civet did not have such a happy story. It had been caught few days before I came across it and that moment the skin was being stuffed! 


With 4 of them possibly occuring here I thought of checking up the local names. Have been fortunate to have access to Reginald Lorrain's "Grammar and Dictionary of the Lakher or Mara Language" and began with it. Discovered an amazing 18 references to the Civets; pointing out to their presence and  in all probability abundance in the landscape a hundred years ago when the author put in time here. 

1. a-lei sa-to; the name of a species of civet cat (probably the toothed palm civet)

2. Hmei tai kha; a species of large ring tailed civet cat (Viverra migaspila)

3. Kei-la-chhu-pa; the name of an animal, probably a species of civet

4. Kho-thli; the name given to the smell left by the “sazao” (civet cat)

5. Lo-bu-pa; the name of an animal, probably a species of civet cat

6. Lo-paw-pa; the name of an animal, probably a species of civet cat, a species of mongoose

7. Paw-kia-sa-to; the name of an animal, a species of civet cat

8. Sa-haw; the name of an animal, the wild cat (Felis marmorata), a ring tailed civet cat

9. Sah-I; species of civet cat, same as sah-to also called sa-ma zu-pa

10. Sah-to; a species of civet cat, same as sah-i

11. Sah-zao; a species of large civet cat (Viverra migaspila)

12. Sa-ma-zu; the name of an animal, a species of civet cat

13. Sa-to; the name of an animal, a species of civet cat

14. Sa-zao; the name of an animal, probably the large civet cat (Viverra malaccensis)

15. Saw-hro-pi; the name of an animal, probably a species of tiger cat, a large civet cat (Viverra migaspila)

16. Vaw-ti-hrao-pa; the name of an animal, probably a ring tailed civet cat

17. Vaw-ti-lyu-pa; the name of an animal, probably a ring tailed civet cat

18. Zu-cha-hri; the name of an animal, the stoat, probably a species of civet cat

When I moved on to Zonunmawia and Pradhan's 'Mizoram and its Wildlife' that enlists wildlife species of the state in Mizo language I was a little surprised to see only the Small Indian Civet being listed. The local names for the species being Sazaw and Tlumpui.

A publication by the Environment and Forests department of the State, Mizoram Forest 2006, however enlists 4 species with their Mizo names. 

1. Large Indian Civet - Tlumpui

2. Small Indian Civet - Tlumthe

3. Common Palm Civet - Sazaw / Zawhang

4. Himalayan Palm Civet - Sazaw / Zawbuang

I had read of the extensive traps and snares put to use during times gone by in the landscape and was surprised in no small measure to see some of them in vogue during a survey we undertook some time ago. This particular trap, I was told, while caught other wildlife was particularly 'used' for the civets. We saw more than 15 of them on the then dry river-beds. While most of them were non-baited I saw one with a crab tied to it. The idea was to crush the unlucky animal with sheer weight for which a heavy log may also be put to use. When we tried to see how it works with 2 of them I was advised to stand quite far and what little doubts remained in my mind on the weight vanished on hearing the sound when the bamboo sheet carrying the stones fell on the ground. 

Reginald Lorrain in his '5 Years in Unknown Jungles' says of traps "Rainy season is  great time of the year with the Lakhers for trapping wild animals" and of this one in particular  " it greatly damages game smashing almost every bone in their body to splinters and bruising the flesh greatly". Colonel J Shakespear in his classic 'The Lushai Kuki Clans' writes "All the hill men are very fond of fresh meat and are clever at trapping game". N E Parry in his seminal work on the landscape 'The Lakhers' states "Traps are always set by men. It is ana (prohibited) for a woman to help a man set traps. When a man dies, all the traps he has used are destroyed, as it is unlucky to use a dead man's traps". 

As I write I recall the rainbow of emotions that drenched me on coming across these traps; this in the middle of perhaps the most amazing forest I have been to, on the India - Myanmar border. Utter surprise at their existence in such numbers, the strong desire to destroy each of them at the earliest to save even one animal if I could and wondering if this was a dying art - a practice integral to the culture of this forlorn landscape, a culture that has preserved these forests !