Hunting, gathering and fishing

Detail

1. Hunting and gathering: the oldest economic activities

• Primary activities take resources straight from nature. Examples are hunting, gathering, fishing, herding (pastoralism), farming and mining.
• Hunting and gathering are the oldest of these economic activities. Early people:
• ate wild animals that they hunted

• ate plants, fruits, roots and nuts that they gathered from forests close to them

• Where people lived by hunting: in very cold climates (Arctic edges) and very hot climates (deserts, tropical forests). Farming was hard there, so hunting was the main way to get food.

• Tools set the limits: early hunters used tools made of stone, twigs or arrows. These tools were simple, so they killed only a few animals. The number of animals stayed safe.
• The modern problem is poaching. Poaching means illegal hunting, often with guns and for trade in skins, tusks, horns or meat.
• modern weapons and the high prices paid for animal parts → far more animals killed
• many species have become extinct (gone for ever) or endangered (close to extinction)

• result → hunting is banned in India under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (link: biodiversity-conservation)

• NCERT Fig. 4.1 shows gathering in Mizoram. In many hill and forest areas of India, gathering is still part of how people make a living.

2. Subsistence gathering

• Subsistence gathering means collecting wild plants and animals mainly to feed the family, not to sell. It survives in areas with harsh climates, where farming is hard.
• Main features:

Feature	Subsistence gathering
Capital (money invested)	Very small
Technology	Very simple (hands, sticks, bows, traps)
Yield per person	Very low
Surplus (extra produce to sell)	Little or none
Purpose	Family's own food, shelter and clothing

• Where it is found (NCERT Fig. 4.2, "Areas of Subsistence Gathering"):

Belt	Regions	Why gathering survives there
High latitudes (cold)	Northern Canada, northern Eurasia, southern Chile	Very short growing season, frozen ground, so crops grow poorly
Low latitudes (hot, wet)	Amazon Basin, tropical Africa, northern fringe of Australia, interior Southeast Asia	Thick forest, poor soil that loses its nutrients easily, few roads to markets

• Map tip: both belts lie far from big cities and markets. That isolation helps keep gathering at the subsistence level.

3. Commercial gathering

• Commercial gathering means collecting forest products, processing them in simple ways and selling them in national or world markets. It moves gathering from "food for the family" to "goods for the market".
• What each part of the plant gives:

Plant part	Products
Bark	Quinine (a medicine against malaria, from the cinchona tree), tannin (used to tan leather), cork
Leaves	Beverages (drinks), drugs, cosmetics, fibres, thatch (roofing)
Nuts	Food and oil
Tree trunks	Rubber, balata (a rubber-like gum), gums and resins

• Why commercial gathering cannot grow much worldwide:
• factories make synthetic (man-made) substitutes, such as synthetic rubber and synthetic medicines
• synthetics are cheaper, and their quality is often better and more uniform
• forest products are also scattered over large areas and are hard to collect in big amounts
• result → gathering is slowly shrinking in world trade

4. Chicle: NCERT's chewing-gum box

• Chicle is the milky juice (latex) of the zapota (sapodilla) tree of Central America.
• It was the old base of chewing gum.
• Today most chewing gum uses a synthetic gum base. This is a good example of why commercial gathering is shrinking: a factory product replaced a forest product.

5. Indian parallel: minor forest produce

• Minor forest produce (MFP) means non-timber forest products, such as leaves, seeds, gums, honey, lac and fruits, that forest dwellers collect and sell. This is commercial gathering inside India (link: natural-vegetation-forests).
• Key examples:
• Tendu leaves are used to roll bidis
• Mahua flowers and seeds give food, liquor and oil

• Sal seeds give an edible fat

• How many people depend on MFP:

• about 10 crore (100 million) people earn their living directly from collecting and selling MFP [7]
• about 3 crore (30 million) forest dwellers depend on the seeds, leaves and resins of sal trees [7]

• collecting tendu leaves gives about 90 days of work to about 75 lakh (7.5 million) people, and another 30 lakh (3 million) people work in making bidis [7]

• Policy response: the "Mechanism for Marketing of MFP through Minimum Support Price (MSP) and Development of Value Chain" began at the end of 2013-14.

• It promises gatherers a fair price for their produce.
• TRIFED (Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India, under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs) is the nodal agency, meaning the main body that runs it.
• At the start it covered items such as tamarind, honey, gum karaya, karanj seed, sal seed, mahua seed, sal leaf, chironjee, myrobalan and lac.
• The government later revised the MSP for 23 MFP items and added 17 new ones [6].

6. Fishing: where the rich fishing grounds are

• Fishing is a primary activity in which people catch fish and other water animals from seas, rivers and lakes.
• Why some seas have far more fish (cause → process → result):
• Wide, shallow continental shelves: the continental shelf is the gently sloping seabed at the edge of a continent, usually less than about 200 m deep → sunlight reaches the water there → plankton (tiny floating plants and animals that fish eat) grow well → many fish
• Meeting of cold and warm currents: the mixing water stirs up nutrients → plankton grow fast → fish gather

• Upwelling: cold, nutrient-rich water rises from the deep sea to the surface → it feeds plankton → large fish shoals

• Major fishing grounds of the world:

Fishing ground	Location	Main reason it is rich
North-East Atlantic	Dogger Bank, in the North Sea between Britain and mainland Europe	Wide, shallow bank on the continental shelf
North-West Atlantic	Grand Banks, off Newfoundland (Canada)	Cold Labrador Current meets the warm Gulf Stream
North-West Pacific	Off Japan	Warm Kuroshio meets the cold Oyashio
South-East Pacific	Peru–Chile coast	Humboldt (Peru) Current upwelling feeds huge anchoveta shoals

• El Niño is the irregular warming of the eastern Pacific off Peru.
• warm water spreads over the coast → upwelling becomes weak → fewer nutrients reach the surface
• result → plankton fall, and the anchoveta catch collapses (link: ocean-movements)

7. Aquaculture: farmed fish now beat wild catch

• Aquaculture means farming fish, shellfish and seaweed in controlled waters such as ponds, tanks, cages and coastal pens.
• FAO's report SOFIA 2024 (The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture) gave these figures for 2022:
• total world fisheries and aquaculture production reached a record 223.2 million tonnes [2][3]
• aquaculture produced 130.9 million tonnes, which is 59% of the total, worth USD 312.8 billion [2][3]
• 94.4 million tonnes of this was aquatic animals, which is 51% of all aquatic animal production [2]
• capture fisheries (wild catch) gave 92.3 million tonnes [2][4]

• result → for the first time in history, farmed aquatic animals were more than wild-caught ones [2][3]

• Leading producers: China is first. India is second in total fish production, with about 8% of world output, and also second in aquaculture [5].

• India's fish production reached a record 174.45 lakh tonnes in 2023-24 [5]
• It rose from about 96 lakh tonnes in 2013-14 to about 195 lakh tonnes in 2024-25. Inland fisheries grew by about 140% over that period [5]
• India is among the top producers and exporters of shrimp [5]

8. Issues: overfishing and the WTO agreement

• Overfishing means catching fish faster than they can breed and replace themselves.
• big trawlers and government subsidies (money that makes fuel and boats cheaper) → too many boats chase too few fish

• result → fish stocks shrink, as happened in the Grand Banks cod collapse of the 1990s

• WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies:

• adopted at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12), June 2022 [8]
• came into force on 15 September 2025, after two-thirds of WTO members formally accepted it [8]
• it bans subsidies to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and to fishing of overfished stocks [8][9]
• it is the WTO's first multilateral agreement with environmental sustainability at its core, meaning the first agreement signed by all members whose main aim is protecting the environment [9]
• a Committee on Fisheries Subsidies now checks how members follow it. It held its first regular meeting on 1 May 2026 [9] (link: world-trade)

Prelims Hooks

• Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 is the law that bans hunting in India.
• Subsistence gathering regions: high latitudes are northern Canada, northern Eurasia and southern Chile. Low latitudes are the Amazon Basin, tropical Africa, the northern fringe of Australia and interior Southeast Asia. Trap: southern Chile is a high-latitude region, not a tropical one.
• Plant part and product: bark gives quinine, tannin and cork. Trunks give rubber, balata, gums and resins. Nuts give food and oil.
• Chicle comes from the zapota (sapodilla) tree of Central America and was the base of chewing gum.
• Ocean currents and fishing grounds: Labrador Current + Gulf Stream → Grand Banks (Newfoundland). Kuroshio + Oyashio → off Japan. Humboldt upwelling → Peru (anchoveta). Dogger Bank is in the North Sea.
• El Niño weakens upwelling off Peru, so the anchoveta catch falls.
• SOFIA 2024: in 2022, aquaculture produced more aquatic animals than capture fisheries for the first time (94.4 million tonnes, or 51%).
• India is the 2nd largest fish producer, with about 8% of world output, and 2nd in aquaculture. Production was 174.45 lakh tonnes in 2023-24.
• The WTO Fisheries Subsidies Agreement was adopted at MC12 (2022) and came into force on 15 September 2025.
• TRIFED is the nodal agency for the MSP for Minor Forest Produce scheme, which began in 2013-14.

Mains Points

• Why gathering survives and why it is shrinking (GS-I): harsh climates, poor soils and isolation keep subsistence gathering alive in the high and low latitudes. Commercial gathering is losing ground because synthetic substitutes are cheaper and more uniform; chicle is the classic example. In India, about 10 crore people still depend on MFP, so fair prices through MSP and value addition by TRIFED matter for tribal livelihoods.
• How fishing grounds are spread over the world (GS-I): rich fishing grounds sit in the mid-to-high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere and along upwelling coasts. Three things make them rich: wide continental shelves, the meeting of warm and cold currents, and upwelling. Climate events such as El Niño show how changes in the ocean directly upset this primary activity and the economies of coastal people.
• From capture to culture (GS-III): in 2022, aquaculture overtook wild catch. This eases pressure on wild stocks and supports food security. But it brings risks such as mangrove loss from shrimp farms, pollution and disease. India's position as the 2nd largest producer gives it a chance to grow its blue economy.
• Overfishing and global rules (GS-III): harmful subsidies speed up the decline of fish stocks. The WTO agreement, in force since September 2025, bans subsidies to IUU fishing and to overfished stocks. India's interest is to protect its small-scale and artisanal fishers while supporting sustainable fishing.