Significance of Aran Festival for Rodent Management by Adi Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh

Arunachal Pradesh is a tribal state inhabitant by 28 major tribes and 110 of subtribes. The Adi is one of the prominent communities which covers the central part of Arunachal Pradesh. The Adis have unique socio-cultural entity among other tribes of the state. They celebrate a number of festivals; in particular, their prime festivals are Aran, Solung and Etor. Trapping and hunting is a part of their culture and they use different indigenous traps and methods for hunting the rodents during Aran festival. The study was aimed to know the different rodent traps and importance of Aran festival in relation to rodent control. The Adi tribal community has invented their own indigenous traditional traps and methods to control the rodents. Four indigenous traps namely, Etku, Odde, Uju and Middu mainly made-up of bamboo and one traditional method that is Buroo were commonly used for rodent trapping by the Adi people. The Aran festival is celebrated during March of every year and rodent trapping is the main activity of the festival. It helps in controlling the rodents before growing the main crop of rice, side by side they have got ethnical importance being the exchangeable gift item during the engagement of bride and groom. The rodent meat is used during the worship of various benevolent god, goddess, deities and spirits for the well being of human kind.