Did you know that when you look at a normal paintbrush you are actually looking at something else? The hair on the brush is really made out of a mongoose (only if it has strips of black and white)! A mongoose is a farmer's friend. Please do not buy a mongoose hair brush if you see it in the shop and tell the shopkeeper also. Otherwise this animal might become extinct like so many other animals who are now in our books but not in our world.

December 2002 saw a ban on mongoose trade. In the six months of investigations that started in July 2002, WTI-assisted raids took in Moradabad and Sherkote (one of the major manufacturing units) districts of Uttar Pradesh, besides Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, and Mumbai. Over 700 kg of mongoose hair was seized from a raid in Muradabad in one brush factory alone. According to WTI, nearly 50,000 mongooses would have been killed for this.

How to recognize a mongoose hair brush Check the hair. It is alternatively ringed with black and white. This is called the ‘salt and pepper’ effect.

Mongooses were listed under Schedule IV of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. They were upgraded to Part II of schedule II. What does this mean? A much higher level of protection and penalty for violation. Declared in September, this notification came into effect from December 10, since a time period of a maximum 60 days is granted to people to declare articles made from the any part or derivative of the species. Trade in it, or its derivatives, was even earlier not permissible.

"The main areas where hunting occurs is Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka though we suspect it is nationwide. Hunter-gatherer communities are involved in the collection of hair, which is then sold to traders at a very nominal cost. The hunting population that might be affected by the ban is likely to be very small", says Aniruddha Mookherjee, Director, Wildlife Trust of India. GT also spoke to Mahesh Rangarajan, forest and wildlife expert, and Kumar Suresh Singh, former director of the Anthropological Society of India, about the communities that might possibly be affected by the ban. Not much research seems to have been done on this.

On the other hand, quite a bit is known about the traders and manufacturers of brushes. "It is not just the small manufacturers. Large, renowned companies are in it too," says Ashok Kumar, trustee, Wildlife Trust of India. According to Mookherjee, "Brushes are usually manufactured by local units and then sold to bigger companies like Camblin and Weldon".

What about breeding mongooses for brushes? "I am not for making chickens of every case", Mookherjee says. "There are plenty of alternatives to mongoose hair for paint brushes. In fact no self-respecting artist would use mongoose hair brushes, and instead use sabel hair ones. The main consumers are very young school students. In fact even art school students do not use them. Synthetic brushes can be easily used as alternatives. The fact is mongoose hair is free right now."