It was sometime in the second half of 2018 that I read about a community-run library called Garung Thuk in the tiny village of Shergaon in Arunachal Pradesh. While I usually spend many months of research on solo travel, I was immediately intrigued by this library.

Inculcate the love of reading in your kids. Check out the books, here.

After scouring the internet for some contact number, I found one on a Facebook group. It belonged to Lobsang Tashi, one of its founding members. Soon, I planned my itinerary, booked my flight, and found myself in the picturesque village nestled in a valley.

Dorjee Khandu Thungon, another founding member of Garung Thuk, remarked, “Bollywood goes abroad for scenic locations, and the North-east movie makers come to Shergaon.”

And I could understand why.

Being in the temperate region, Shergaon experiences four distinct seasons. As I had visited in Spring, everywhere I looked was a picture-perfect shot, with oak trees sprouting tender red and green leaves, birds chirping and serenading their mates, bees and butterflies buzzing about pollinating flowers, the mountains standing guard in the background and a river gurgling across.

Shergaon is home to the Sherdukpen tribe, who are also spread in the villages of Rupa and Jigaon, 23 and 13 km from Shergaon, respectively. Around 1,000 members of the tribe reside in Shergaon, and everyone knows everybody else.

Originally from Tibet, they migrated here hundreds of years ago. Respect for Nature is deeply ingrained in them and drives their conservation efforts.

The Sherdukpens were primarily hunters and gatherers who also practiced agriculture. With the former being banned by the government, their main sources of income became agriculture and horticulture.

A close-knit community, they have an incredible sense of pride in their tradition and culture. With the passing away of the elderly who were the repositories of knowledge and ancient wisdom, a group of like-minded people like Lobsang and Dorjee, along with the village council, decided to create a platform for the younger generation. It would help them learn about their culture and take pride in it, while also contribute to society.

With this vision, Garung Thuk, a non-profit organisation, was established in October 2014. Garung Thuk means ‘our village’, and that speaks volumes about the sense of belonging and ownership by its people.

Lobsang and Dorjee have been the helm of many of the initiatives at Garung Thunk. After a PhD in Ethno-Botany, Lobsang is working towards preserving the biodiversity of the region. He has been documenting traditional wisdom about the medicinal properties of plants and trees, knowledge which was common in the previous generations but is now endangered.

Dorjee Thungon, an IIT-Guwahati alumnus, returned to his native Itanagar after having worked in other cities in the country.

In 2015, with Pratham Books, they crowd sourced Rs 45,000, buying a multitude of books of various genres for children. Thus, Garung Thuk also became a community-run library.

Instead of inviting prominent personalities or politicians as chief guests, they asked the students, the direct beneficiaries, to inaugurate the library.

Garung Thuk is also at the lead for creating awareness about the rich biodiversity of Shergaon. One such initiative was adopting a stretch of the Choskorong Kho river for five years starting December 2014. They did a fish riverine ranching programme where they released 500 fish fingerlings with the help of the fisheries department.

Felling of trees and fishing was banned along the riverside and in the river, thus allowing them to regenerate with fish, birds and butterflies.

Other environmental activities of this organisation are:

1. Workshops on mushroom cultivation- Shergaon has a wealth of mushrooms. While ambling around the village with Lobsang, we spotted a few women collecting the very rare mushroom Marcella, which sells for approx Rs 2,000 per kg. And because it’s so scarce, people prefer to consume it rather than sell it. On a trek to a mud fort another day, we chanced upon the dork eared fungus. We gathered it, took it home, and just nibbled on it after washing it. Apparently it tastes delicious when cooked with fish.

2. Extensive tree plantation drives are conducted where around 2,000 fruiting trees such as peach, plum, as well as oak have been planted.

3. There are workshops on how to make bamboo cups and mugs so that plastic can be eliminated. In fact, before the infestation of plastic, bamboo was extensively used for crafting cups and mugs; the community is now reverting to its roots.

4. Garung Thuk also periodically invites experts on birds and butterflies to organise workshops to create awareness and pride in the local fauna and flora. An extension of this is photography workshops to facilitate the documentation of the region’s biodiversity.

5. With cheap power loom fabric and ready-made garments flooding the market, as everywhere else in India, the centre is doing a commendable job of reviving handloom. As part of this initiative, expert weavers are called from other states to give inputs on the improvisation of the loom, and they brainstorm on how traditional wear can be made contemporary. I saw some excellently handwoven bags, stoles, and skirts.

6. Community-run homestays are a recent initiative where guests can experience traditional Sherdukpen cuisine, culture, and pristine beauty.

An important aspect of the Sherdukpen tribe is ownership of the forests, which are considered sacred. The community takes turns to use the fallen and decaying oak leaves from different areas of the grove to use for mulching in agriculture. Since it’s a sacred grove, it follows naturally that trees are not felled.

To promote and preserve their culture, the 22 members of Garung Thuk have converted an old traditional wooden house into a museum where traditional home utensils and agricultural equipment of yore are displayed. A slice of life from the past is thus preserved so that the younger generation can relate to it and visitors be awed by it.

Garung Thuk also preserves its culture through the annual festival of Kro-Cheykor, which typically falls in May-June every year, where the entire Sherdukpen clan participates with full enthusiasm. The younger generation receives training on the dance moves and songs which have been in practice for hundreds of years.

Traditional food, including wild berries, roots, and fruit foraged from the forest, are served with copious quantities of the locally brewed beer. This is the time when each member of the clan dresses up in traditional attire, complete with the handwoven bag and necks bejewelled with big coral and turquoise beads.

The centre also conducts workshops on Bhoti script to acquaint the younger generation with it. Other commendable initiatives include medical camps, eye checkups for elders and cataract removal, water tank cleanups, and so forth.

Also Read: Residents of 11 Villages Join Forces, Help IAF Repair Damaged Airstrip in Arunachal Pradesh

There is no external funding for Garung Thuk and the initiatives are conducted with the help of various organisations and people such as the Divisional Forest Officer Mr Millo Tasser and Itanagar’s Department of Karmik and Adhyatmik Affairs.

Garung Thuk is a shining example of how a community can live on ancient principles, in harmony with nature, of how tradition and culture can still survive and be embraced by the younger generations in a world becoming homogeneous by a wave of ‘modernisation’. It provides a proverbial bridge connecting the old with the new, the ancient with the modern. The Sherdukpens are incredibly warm people and excellent hosts. I was happy that I trusted my instincts and travelled to this quaint village, the memories of which will remain with me forever.

(Written by Priya Krishnan Das and Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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Last year, the world witnessed the worst fires to hit the Amazon Basin in Brazil in over a decade. This made international headlines with the fires destroying ecosystems and pumping climate warming pollution into the atmosphere. But these fires aren’t restricted to the Amazon.

Forest fires destroy millions of hectares of the world’s forests every year. Even the verdant forests of Arunachal Pradesh haven’t been spared of the same. With the lives of forest-dwelling communities and biodiversity at stake, we are left with no option but to find ways to predict and prevent these wildfires from consuming everything.

Introducing ‘eForestFire-Himalayan Forest Fire Prediction’, an e-governance initiative to predict forest fires in Arunachal Pradesh. The brainchild of 2013-batch Indian Forest Service officer Dr Abdul Qayum (AGMUT cadre), this system has “utilised decadal forest fire Forest Survey of India (FSI) data and mapped it on GIS platform with the objective to analyze forest fire events and their distribution to generate fire hotspots at the lowest administrative unit (village level),” says this video explainer.

Going further, it has “developed an efficient information dissemination system through a user friendly Android mobile App named eForestFire, linking fire data shared by citizens on a web GIS (geographic information system) portal,” the explainer goes onto add.

And the impact of this initiative has been immediate. When the initiative first took shape in 2017, a total of 6,551 cases of forest fires were reported in the state, while in the current financial year up to 7 December 2019, fire incidences were limited to 4,535 cases as reported by NASA through an email communication. In other words, the forest fire incidences reported this year were around 31 percent less in comparison to the period before the start of the initiative.

As a consequence of its success, the initiative bagged a national award for e-governance (Jury) at the Central government-organised National Conference on e-Governance earlier this year in Mumbai.

eForestFire Service was initially envisioned in September 2017. The first step was to characterise these forest fires in the state and the factors linked to them. Alongside academics Firoz Ahmad and Laxmi Goparaju, Qayum published a study on it in 2018.

Following the publication of this study, it was a fellow IFS officer Pradeep Mishra (MP Cadre) who assisted Dr Qayum in developing the app. With support from college mate Rakesh Sharma, who helped develop the GIS platform, the project also received the firm backing of RK Singh, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests in Arunachal Pradesh.

By February 2019, the entire system finally came into play.

Who is Dr Abdul Qayum?

Born in the nondescript village Soharauna Raja of Maharajganj District in Uttar Pradesh, this son of a school teacher first studied at the local madrasa before earning a seat at the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Gorakhpur. Following school, Qayum obtained his B.Tech in civil engineering from IIT-Kanpur and PhD in Bioinformatics from JNU.

What attracted Qayum to the IFS was a realisation that India’s ecological future will go a long way in determining how it progresses. Without protecting India’s most vulnerable wildlife and forests, he feels that any economic progress is meaningless.

Since there was no better way to protect India’s precious forests and wildlife, he chose to join the IFS. Moreover, he has a burning desire to protect people dependent on the forests for their survival (vulnerable tribal communities), who are equal partners in the quest for conservation.

In many ways, Qayum’s latest brainchild encapsulates many of his objectives as an IFS officer from finding ways to better allocate resources in protecting forests to engaging local citizens. At the time of developing this system, he was the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. He is currently posted as the Deputy Conservator of Forest in Chandigarh.

What causes forest fires in Arunachal Pradesh?

“The causes are primarily anthropogenic in nature, mostly out of human negligence or lack of awareness. It can result from something as innocuous as smoking a bidi or cigarette, and throwing it in the forest. However, there are those living on the fringes of forests who are dependent on it for survival. They deliberately light a fire which catches on and clears new ground for cultivation. The areas where poverty is high require greater attention for prevention of forest fires. There is also the ill-practice of shifting agriculture. Sometimes these fires go out of control and spread to larger areas,” says Qayum, speaking to The Better India.

But why do these fires spread? Qayum attributes it to the type of vegetation prevalent in these forests, particularly leaves that are shed during a particular season prone to catching fire. Using satellite imagery, his research team found that these fires mostly happen in moist deciduous forests. There are also species located in high altitude areas like pine that are susceptible to catching fire. In order to acquire cross validation for these findings, he led a research team which conducted an altitude wise study.

“…maximum number of forest fires occurred in tropical lowland forests, broadleaved, evergreen, <1000 m vegetation class (35%), while maximum number of fires (88%) was found in low elevation (<1500 m). The study has also reinforced the relationship between forest fire incidences and poverty as 42.3% incidence occurred in high to very high poverty index areas. Further a strong correlation was established with meteorological parameters such as relative humidity, precipitation, solar radiation and maximum temperature with fires fire, while minimum temperature and wind velocity were found to be nearly unrelated,” says this detailed paper published in 2018.

Gathering data

It’s the FSI which alerts respective state forest departments of forest fire locations detected by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer) sensor onboard Aqua and Terra Satellites of NASA since 2004. Information is also relayed from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP-VIIRS).

How is the information relayed? Here is process laid out in the State of Forest Report 2017:

1) Active fire sports or hotspots are received by NRSC *National Remote Sensing Centre), Hyderabad in their ground station at Shadnagar, Telangana and processes using Science Processing Algorithms (SPAs). The fire points are shared through email by NRSC to FSI.

2) The fire alerts provided by NRSC include all thermal anomalies detected by the sensors irrespective of whether these fall within or outside forests, FSI filters out all fires other than forest fires using a custom filter which is a combination of Recorded Forest Area boundaries as well as forest cover data. Enrichment of the forest fire information is carried out by adding attributes like State, District, Division, Range, Beat, Compartment boundaries etch to the forest fire locations. The information is then disseminated to State Nodal Officers, registered users and also uploaded on the website of FSI in the form of table and maps.

“Then the FSI relays that information to the State Forest Department headquarters. From there it is sent to the concerned District/Divisional Forest Officer (DFO). At the local level, the entire district is divided into ranges, which are further divided into blocks. So, the DFO receives the message of a forest fire taking place, who then relays it to the local range officer, and they have their own team that firefights. They recruit locals to firefight and use the equipment at their disposal to douse these fires,” says Qayum.

“From more than 6,000 cases of forest fires, it has come down to around 4500 with better predictive and preventive model of gauging forest fires. If monitoring and certain interventions are conducted, we can bring the number down further up to 2,000,” he adds.

There are four segments to this system:

1) Mapping eight factors that are directly or indirectly linked to fires such as forest type, density, altitude, slope, rainfall data, temperature, poverty and population density. In light of these factors, eight maps were generated initially. These maps were integrated, giving certain weight to each factor which generated what he calls ‘Hotspot 1’. The team also obtained decadal data of forest fires in the state from the FSI, which generated ‘Hotspot 2’.

2) “The FSI data and the actual map we have produced citing direct and indirect factors are compared–where we predict forest fires are likely to happen and where actual fire points are reported. These maps are compared to find a percentage correlation. We obtained 70% correlation i.e. common points on both hotspots.

3) In the third part, Qayum and his team merged these two hotspots to improve the model. Out of over 5,258 villages in the state, they listed 560 villages which needed priority attention.

4) Subsequently, they developed this Android-based app called eForestFire, which has facilitated citizen-centric inputs from the public.

“The app is a Fire Reporting System, a scientific approach to ease governance by engaging people and promoting e-governance for the end users. It is designed specifically to work in offline mode which does not require any expertise and has the capability to deliver reports with just a click. Input is taken to get the exact location of the fire. After hitting the submit button, citizens can contact concerned District Forest Officer through email, WhatsApp or SMS by a predesigned standardised message or through a telephone or mobile call,” says Pradeep.

“Each input generates a data point which can be projected onto the web portal to get a bird’s eye view of state forest fire and revise the model with greater accuracy. The study that has been published in the Springer journal predicts a list of 560 priority villages of high forest fire risks. Fire points used had fewer data resolution, which comprised the project strength but the efficiency has been improved with citizen centric inputs through the app,” he adds.

Nearly 25% of the 560 villages fall under West Kameng district.

But what if there is no internet? Users can still click on the required options, and once you reach an internet-present area, information will be sent to the concerned DFO or you call them directly since their landline and mobile number are embedded on the app. This input then goes through a web portal called webgis.co.in. The app is specifically designed to work in offline mode considering the internet connectivity issues of the remote Himalayan state.

“The system is a union of data from direct and indirect factors, FSI, mobile app and web GIS portal. These are the four factors which are integrated to get the entire picture. At present we have a list of 560 high priority villages which we monitor for forest fires, but in a year or two this number will greatly reduce if proper implementation is done” says Qayum.

Efficient allocation of resources & public participation

With this system in place, the state now has a working model that can predict forest fires. This means the concerned forest officers have information of his/her villages that are susceptible to forest fires. Using this information, they can strategically establish fire lines that are used to prevent fire breaking into the forest from one patch to another using a constructed surface like a road or a water body. At present, there is no scientific input available in creating these fire lines.

With this information, officials can also better allocate watch and ward duties unlike earlier where it was randomly done, and set up watchtowers along these 560 priority villages. Besides raising awareness, engaging the public in fire fighting situations, this advanced information offered by this system helps the Forest Department allocate their limited resources strategically and efficiently. Building this system from scratch is a focussed intervention with real impact.

Also Read: Despite Death Threats, Fierce Official Frees 6,000 Hectares of Forest Land

“We have fire fighting equipment, but these fires are mitigated primarily because of active participation of the public. Since we sensitise them in advance that they are living in a fire prone area, we receive active support from them. At community level, there are certain groups that remain vigilant and pass on information to us like who is responsible for a particular fire. In Arunachal Pradesh, Gram Buras (GB), are village administrative heads with whom we keep in regular touch. They have their own internal arrangement of investigating and dishing out punishment to those starting fires,” informs Qayum.

However, a lot more needs to be done to prevent forest fires besides utilising this system. Since it’s a question of livelihood for certain communities who burn down forests to survive, governments, nonprofits and district administrations must initiate programmes that enhance their livelihood opportunities and reduce dependency on forest resources.

Having said that, using an accurate model to predict and mitigate them is a solid first step.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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While many parts of the country are witnessing long lines outside grocery stores during the current nationwide lockdown, the administration of a remote district in Arunachal Pradesh and MeeBuddy, an Andhra Pradesh-based online app are coming together to ensure residents get their essentials delivered home.

It was sometime in February when the Lohit district administration first reached out to MeeBuddy, an app which is like Big Basket, OLX and Urban Clap rolled into one for semi-urban and rural areas.

It delivers daily essentials, agricultural items and services like plumbing, carpentry and electrical work, while also providing a platform to purchase and sell local and used products like agriculture tools, electronic gadgets, and handicrafts across semi-urban and rural areas through affiliated dealers (franchisees).

Launched in February 2019, the app has covered 200 villages working with 20 franchisees across Andhra Pradesh in the past year. It is also operational in Telangana and Arunachal Pradesh with Meghalaya on the horizon. It’s operational in Arunachal Pradesh thanks to its association with the Smart Village Movement, which is working with the State government to enable rural people to provide for themselves through entrepreneurship, job training and onboarding them to open innovation platforms.

“Our delivery boys are currently delivering in Tezu town (District Headquarters) and the surrounding 20 villages. During this lockdown, however, we are focussing only on the delivery of essential items,” says Malireddy Rajasekhar, founder and CEO, MeeBuddy, speaking to The Better India.

Post the lockdown, the Lohit district administration worked closely with the app to immediately operationalise the delivery of essential items. The app has registered over 1480 users in Lohit district and executed over 200 deliveries.

“Thus far, the response to this app has been quite good. On the second day following its launch a week ago, we registered around 900 users. We didn’t expect so many people to get onto the app. There were initial complaints that the app was slowing down a little, but we have managed to address this problem, besides increasing delivery channels. We are covering Tezu, the headquarters of Lohit district, and villages in and around it,” says Deputy Commissioner Prince Dhawan.

For a Mebuddy app to work in Lohit district, franchisee owners were needed. So, the administration initially engaged a couple of unemployed and enterprising youth, reached out to the market association and got all service providers and goods delivery shops registered on it with their product offerings and menu.

The delivery is facilitated by franchisee owners, who have gone onto further hire some delivery boys. These delivery boys are trained and given the proper equipment to deliver these products to residences.

“We have got five delivery boys delivering products around the clock. The plan is to expand this service to the Wakro and Sunpura circles as well. Administrations in nearby Pasighat and Itanagar have already expressed an interest as in,” he adds.

In an interview with Guwahati-based publication EastMojo, a resident, Heymu Lohorung, spoke about how the app delivered his order of coffee, sugar and onions in 30 minutes.

“Had this app not been there, I would have no choice but to step out of my home to procure sugar at least, and it might have put my health at risk, who knows…In fact, seeing pictures coming from various parts of the country showing essential goods shops, vegetable and fruit vendors overcrowded with customers left me wondering that if a remote district like mine can launch such an app and connect all logistics needed to supply essential goods and services to citizens, to stop them come out during lockdown period, in no time, then why can’t the other districts follow this model?” he asked.

It’s a sentiment Rajasekhar also expresses.

“Having hundreds of people gather at markets to buy essential items is a dangerous situation, and our delivery system seeks to ensure people don’t have to take that step. One concern in Arunachal is the lack of mobile network, particularly in rural areas. The areas we are covering so far don’t have such issues, though. After the lockdown, we will expand all over Arunachal, and the state government will address the network issue,” he says.

Meanwhile, for Dhawan, the arrival of MeeBuddy has genuinely eased some of his major administrative concerns.

“From an administrative standpoint, the importance of MeeBuddy is that it keeps people at home. There is no exchange of currency as well since you can pay online, and this saves a trip to the ATM as well. As an administrator, I can monitor whether essential commodities are getting delivered to people, whether there is a price rise in the market, and I have all these statistics available on a dashboard. This is key because often we aren’t able to obtain the correct data of what is happening in the market,” he tells TBI.

In the more interior areas, where the app hasn’t reached, the administration has scheduled time slots for locals to collect their rations. Social distancing has been ensured by marking a queue line. To check prices, they are conducting regular inspections in markets.

At this critical juncture, collaborations like the one between MeeBuddy and Lohit district administration are showing the way forward to ensure people stay at home.

Also Read: Want to Help Daily Wage Workers? City-Wise Helplines to Get Them Food, Essentials

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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On 31 March 2020, the Lohit district administration in Arunachal Pradesh received information from various sources about a person with a history of travelling to Delhi whom they were trying to trace. Although the said person was already under home quarantine in Medo village since 20 March, he didn’t clearly inform the authorities about his recent travel history.

Armed with this information, a medical team led by the District Medical Officer Dr Sajinglu Chai Pul and District Surveillance Officer Dr S Towang, immediately made their way to Medo, where they took his swab sample and sent it for testing the same evening.

Taking no chances, the person and his entire family were taken to the nearest quarantine facility in Wakro village. The medical team took all necessary measures to ensure that no community transmission took place if he tested positive.

The results finally came in on 2 April, and the person had tested positive for COVID-19, following which he was immediately shifted to the isolation ward at the zonal General Hospital in Tezu, the district headquarters.

When news arrived of the subject testing positive for COVID-19, all hell broke loose. There was widespread panic on the ground. On social media, anti-social elements began targeting the person, his family and the religious community he belonged to. A photo of his family being taken into quarantine had been leaked online. There was public criticism of the district administration as well. But those on the frontlines weren’t rattled. They calmly went about their work—and saw the affected man to full recovery. And this is how they prepared themselves.

The Power of Foresight

“It’s all about timely mass communication and awareness. When news of the positive case had spread, we immediately reached out to influential community groups. We conducted micro-level meetings since large gatherings weren’t advisable and aggressively deployed IEC (information, education and communication) campaigns, besides employing our local language public announcers. This was also about instilling a sense of confidence among the people that we can handle this epidemic and there is no need to panic,” says Deputy Commissioner Prince Dhawan, speaking to The Better India.

It was a joint effort by the district administration, police and the medical team. What particularly helped was their level of preparation for such an eventuality.

Along with the medical superintendent of the General Hospital, Dr Chai Pul had identified the isolation facility and medical teams required to deal with positive cases well before the first such patient was announced. With the first positive case, they had closed down the OPD, but since the case wasn’t severe, they kept the flu corner and casualty unit open.

Steps were also taken for doctors and nurses on the frontlines to ensure they were mentally prepared in case of any eventuality well before the first positive case. Three 10-member teams, including doctors and nurses to oversee the patient, were set up. The first team would oversee the positive case for 10 days, followed by a 14-day quarantine period. After the first team finished its 10 day-stint, the second team would take over and so on.

These teams also included lab technicians—who had to collect swabs from the patient—and safai karamcharis—who had to enter the isolation ward to clean and disinfect it. The district had also set up a team of counselors to offer psychological help to those under the previous lockdown, and there were designated quarantine living quarters for doctors, nurses. They also had specified vehicles that would take them to the hospital and back to the quarantine facility.

“Since the patient was asymptomatic, we were confident of his eventual recovery. Moreover, there were guidelines set that in case the patient’s condition worsens significantly and turns severe, we would transport him to Dibrugarh Medical College,” says Dr Chai Pul, speaking to TBI. Given that the patient was asymptomatic, doctors treated him by giving vitamins but not antibiotics, reports Arunachal Times. “We had to focus on non-pharmaceutical intervention,” she told the local publication.

The medical workers who treated the first patient are still under quarantine.

Battling Fear & Anxiety: Preventive Measures

“We had already arranged for counsellors, and even started a district-level helpline that would help locals address their mental health concerns during a lockdown. Continuous engagement with all the stakeholders in the district meant that we included community organizations into the process of managing the epidemic. We reached out to the Cultural and Literary Society of Mishmis (CALSOM), All Mishmi Student Union (AMSU), All Mishmi Women Welfare Society (AMWWS) and other similar organisations. They were part of the process at every step. Their office bearers could see where things were going and they helped us spread our message to others,” says DC Dhawan.

He goes onto state that the district administration also intensified their engagement with local elected representatives. By garnering their cooperation, they were able to send across the right message to the general public and diffuse any unfounded fears.

“Yes, we were scared when he tested positive, but the entire medical team here was already well trained, oriented and underwent sensitisation workshops at Itanagar. When we came back, we sensitised almost everyone in the local medical fraternity all the way to ASHA workers, disseminated information through radio talks and set up a roster of doctor duties. While there was anxiety among doctors and nurses about quality and the lack of PPEs, but fortunately more kits had arrived by the night the patient was admitted. We were well prepared,” says Dr Chai Pul.

Initially people were scared to even collect samples from the patient. Dr S Towang, the first person on the spot stepped in, to ensure their samples were collected and even helped out the patient’s family. The district administration, working closely with the local police force, played an integral part in organising the logistics of identifying, tracing the patient’s contacts, quarantining them post contact tracing and ensuring their welfare.

The administration played a key role in calming the local community down. In Medo village, where the patient tested positive, a lot of work had to be done to ensure people weren’t gripped by fear. After the village was declared a containment zone, frontline health workers in Medo’s primary health clinic conducted house to house surveys with the help of ASHA workers. Overall, it was a coordinated team effort. Each department played their role.

In order to service immediate food requirements of migrant/daily wage workers of lohit district amidst lockdown, lohit Dist. Administration has distributed free rations to workers without ration cards in order to avoid any distress situation such as food crisis. pic.twitter.com/0LRck3s3PI

— Lohit DC (@DcLohit) March 30, 2020

“When the patient tested positive, we were compelled to organise further public meetings wearing protective gear and maintaining social distancing. The Deputy Commissioner, Superintendent of Police, District Surveillance Officer and I were compelled to address the public in micro-gatherings of course and repeatedly explain the situation to them. After our repeated assurances, things got better,” says Dr Chai Pul.

The district medical team has played an extremely crucial role in the entire episode because after all they had to handle the patient, claims DC Dhawan. “Dr Chai Pul led from the front by giving it her all. She offered counselling to the patient, his family members, and closely engaged with the community at large,” he adds.

Until the patient recovered on 17 April, the entire medical team assisted in counselling him, including the DMO. Although the patient has been discharged from the hospital, he is still being kept under a mandatory 14-day quarantine period as a matter of precaution.

“We have sufficient numbers of personal protective equipment (PPE) and are equipped to handle up to moderate cases of COVID-19. Nearly 90 per cent of the people have completed their mandatory 14-day quarantine period with active surveillance. Now, they are in the 14-day self-reporting period, although they are still under surveillance. For active surveillance, we roped in the services of ASHA workers and booth-level election workers since they are well conversant with the localities. There are no suspected cases as of now,” says DC Dhawan.

What the example of Lohit district illustrates is how the district administration, particularly the medical team led by Dr Chai Pul, did not panic or give in to the public’s fear. Instead, they went about their duties and treated the patient to a full recovery.

Also Read: COVID-19: How an Andhra-Based App Delivers Groceries in Remote Arunachal District

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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There have been two definitive moments in the nascent cricketing career of Techi Doria, the diminutive and dreadlocked opening batsman from Arunachal Pradesh. The first arrived on 21 September 2018, in Vadodara’s Moti Baug cricket stadium, where he became the first player from the state to score a century at any level.

The celebrations that ensued included performing a series of acrobatic jumps and a moment where he almost hugged the umpire in sheer delight. He went onto score a sensational 122 against Sikkim in a Vijay Hazare Trophy league match, and Arunachal went on to win the match by 49 runs. “I danced like a crazy man that day,” he says.

The second moment arrived nearly two months later on 20 November 2018, in Goalpara, Assam, during a Ranji Trophy match against Uttarakhand.

Scoring 60 runs in 246 balls in a hard-fought second innings performance, he played in a manner that went completely against his instinct as an aggressive T20 batsman. Although Arunachal lost that match by an innings and 73 runs, he insists that it was an innings that he will never forget.

Here’s the reason why.

After a protracted legal battle, in July 2018, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) granted the Arunachal Pradesh Cricket Association full member status. This meant the state could also now have their own team in the Ranji Trophy and other domestic tournaments organised by the BCCI. Consequently, the team made its senior-level debut in the 2018–19 season.

“Since we were new entrants into the Ranji Trophy tournament, the Uttarakhand team was confident of winning the game in less than three days. The team had even booked their return tickets before noon on the third day of a four-day match. I was furious when I got to know this, as it was a blatant show of disrespect. How could they underestimate us in such a manner,” he recalls.

So, once Doria got into bat on the morning of Day 3, he vowed to play a long innings and only got out very late in the day.

“During my innings, I could see the Uttarakhand team getting visibly frustrated. Rajat Bhatia, a veteran of the domestic cricket circuit and captain even hurled abuses at everyone. I eventually lost my wicket through a run-out. Although the game finished by the very end of Day 3, my innings played a part in ensuring they missed their return trip back on that day,” he says.

Bob Marley of Indian Cricket

Search the name ‘Techi Doria’ on Google, and the first results will make references to the ‘Bob Marley of Indian cricket’.

The only link between the cricketer and the legendary Jamaican artist are the lush dreadlocks that flow well below the shoulder. It was during a local match a couple of years ago, when someone in the crowd started chanting ‘Bob Marley’ when he entered to bat.

The name had initially irritated him, but upon researching more about the singer-songwriter, he understood about the respect it garnered.

Doria is a hip-hop fan with a special affinity to a dance form associated with this urban musical genre called breakdancing or b-boying. Before he dedicated his life to the game of cricket full time in 2014-15, he was part of a dance group that won many competitions locally and performed in front of thousands of people. He had even featured in a couple of local movies.

“But cricket is my true passion, and I gave up everything else to truly focus on the game,” he asserts.

“I will play till I die.”

Growing up in Naharlagun, a town situated on the foothills of the Himalayas in Arunachal Pradesh’s Papum Pare district, the 26-year-old batting all-rounder learnt the game by watching his heroes on television. And like millions before him, Doria grew up idolising Sachin Tendulkar.

“My first inspiration to play the game of cricket was Sachin Tendulkar. He inspired me for two specific reasons—his style of batting and his humble, yet confident nature. I want to emulate his game and personality off the field,” says Doria.

However, it was only in Class 8 as a 13-year-old when he started playing the game with greater seriousness. Before, he would watch others play, particularly his elder brother Techi Tahim, who also played in the state Ranji Trophy side for one season (2018/19).

“My elder brother inspired me to take up the game. He would play big tournaments in the state. Seeing him, I thought if he could play at that level, so could I. For the most part, however, I learnt the game on television,” he recalls.

Doria began playing only in Class 8 because until then he couldn’t get into the school team. His undeniable talent soon caught the eyes of local cricketing aficionados, playing across all age groups in the state before finally making his way into the senior state team. For those who haven’t seen him play, Doria is an athletic batting all-rounder who bowls leg-spin.

“I am a naturally aggressive batsman who likes playing the big shots because of my greater exposure to T20 cricket, but over time I have learnt how to play in a game-sensitive manner. If the situation demands I play big shots, but if my team needs me to hold onto my wicket I can play cautiously as well. My bowling also follows the same instinct. Nonetheless, my focus is more on batting. My favourite format of the game is T20, although my love for ODI cricket is growing. The transition from playing T20 to ODI is easier than playing the 4-day Test match format of Ranji Trophy games,” he says.

Former Indian team fast bowler, Sanjeev Sharma, who has coached different teams in the last 15 years and is the current coach of the Arunachal team, is all praises for his player.

“I was the Sikkim coach, when he scored that wonderful century. Doria is a very promising player, although this year, his performances with the bat have dropped a little. But a few umpiring decisions on the field have gone against him as well. We have seen great improvement in his bowling. Doria’s biggest strength is his temperament. If he starts confidently by defending a few deliveries, he can occupy the crease for a couple of hours. He has taken some absolutely brilliant catches and is a fantastic fielder. His biggest weakness is against spinners, particularly left arm spinners, which will improve by working on defense and footwork. If you’re a good four-day player, you can survive all formats.”

Even Doria acknowledges that playing four-day matches is a tricky proposition, particularly when he plays against quality spin bowling. However, even though the Arunachal team is new to the test match format, under Sharma’s tutelage, it has witnessed some improvement since the 2018-19 season, particularly in the longer formats.

“Our focus is on strengthening the technical foundations of our game. There are very few players in the state with genuinely good technique whether it comes to batting, bowling or fielding. In the next two-three years, we hope to develop our technical skills significantly. Meanwhile, there is a greater emphasis on developing talent in the state across various age groups, and women’s cricket is receiving real encouragement as well,” mentions Doria.

In addition to team meetings and practice sessions, the Arunachal coach believes that his players should at least be involved in camps lasting 10-15 days before tournaments. This includes both conditioning and technical camps.

“For these boys to play tournaments like Vijay Hazare, Syed Mushtaq and Ranji Trophy is not going to be easy. They need proper summer camps before the season begins, playing in conditions like Chennai, Delhi and Bengaluru to get their requisite exposure. Our last camp in Dibrugarh, Assam, lasted only seven days, of which three were lost to rain. Following the camp, we straightaway competed in a challenging Vijay Hazare Trophy in Dehradun, where we finished above Sikkim, Manipur and Mizoram,” mentions Sharma.

“Ideally, there should be a two-week camp, followed by a short break where they go home, and then another two-week camp before the start of a major tournament. It would be very good for these boys so that they are better prepared for the upcoming season,” he adds.

Nonetheless, he compliments the management for fulfilling their financial obligations to the players and support staff in a professional and timely manner.

For the 26-year-old son of a farmer, the ultimate objective is to play in the Indian Premier League. At no point in his life have his parents told him to stop pursuing his dreams of playing cricket under the bright lights.

But merely playing domestic cricket for Arunachal Pradesh has its limitations financially, although that doesn’t seem to bother Doria too much.

Unlike other athletes in the Northeast who support their sporting ambition by getting a government job, he wants to constantly remain in touch with the game whether it’s in a playing or coaching capacity.

“There is enough money. I don’t want to do another job to supplement my income despite tensions that I may not be able to play sports all my life. But I want to play cricket till the day I die because that is where my happiness comes from. After attending a Northeast coaches training camp in 2017, I started my cricket academy, which trains players from all junior age groups. At present, there are nearly 100 players enrolled in my academy,” he says.

Pre-lockdown, he was up at 5 am every day, spending a couple of hours at his academy in Naharlagun before setting off to Itanagar 13 km away to coach at another batch of youngsters. Although the coaching gig only pays him around Rs 8,000 per month, his passion for nurturing the next batch of talented youngsters is unmatched.

“There is a lot of talent in Arunachal, and we must harness it,” he says.

There is still some way to go before the diminutive Doria fulfils his professional goals. Maybe, he fulfils them, maybe he doesn’t. But what we can say for certain is that his dedication to the game and desire to nurture it in the state will never diminish.

Also Read: Born Into Poverty, Lost His Sight at 7: India’s Blind Cricket Captain is All About Guts

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

With The Positive Collective, The Better India’s COVID-19 coverage is available to regional language publications for free. Write to editorial@thebetterindia.com for more details.

While growing up in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Kameng district, Kezang D Thongdok remembers hearing stories about the honey hunters from his father and grandparents, who would recall going on hunts themselves as youngsters.

Part of a small and unique tribal community of Shertukpens, Kezang had always been fascinated by the age-old practice of honey-hunting, which was once an integral part of their customs and traditions.

“However, I had never witnessed it for myself,” says Kezang, speaking to The Better India.

“With the advent of modernisation, honey hunting is rapidly fading away. Within three or four years, this unique practice will fade out. The young generation isn’t interested in hunting and harvesting for honey because it’s rigorous work. This practice is under threat,” he adds.

Perhaps this was Kezang’s inspiration behind a 26-minute-long documentary called Chi Lupo (‘Chi’ refers to honey, while ‘Lupo’ refers to hunter), which spectacularly documents this skillful practice of collecting honey from hives perched on rocky hilltops. The documentary  recently won ‘best documentary’ at the 10th Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival Awards.

The Quaint Life of the Shertukpens

Located within the eastern fringes of the Himalayan ranges in Western Arunachal Pradesh’s West Kameng district is a conglomeration of nearly 12 villages that the Shertukpens inhabit.

Despite their long lineage of Tibetan ancestry and inheriting Tibetan Buddhist culture, “the Sherdukpens [although phonetically speaking the community prefers Shertukpen] are more inclined to their pre-Buddhist animistic traditions,” according to this study.

Making them particularly unique are their very small numbers. There are barely 4,000+ speakers of their native tongue also known as Shertukpen which has no written script.

The Shertukpens were also known for the now dying skill of honey hunting.

Take the example of Chumbi Megeji, a man in his early 80s, who has been a honey hunter all his life. Briefly interrupted by the Chinese aggression in 1961-62, it’s what he has done all his life.

“Nowadays, the younger generation do not take interest in honey hunting. It is a part of our culture. I wish to go honey hunting, but my old age doesn’t permit me. I wish the younger generation would learn the art of honey hunting and keep this tradition alive,” says Megeji despondently. You can see the sadness in his eyes when he says it.

Compelled by the thought of the art of honey hunting breathing its last, Kezang, a public relations officer working in a private hydropower company with a passion for documentary filmmaking, began his journey in June 2018 to follow a few honey hunters deep into jungles of Shra Numah hills near Thongri village perched at 6,000 ft above sea level.

The native hunters were from Thongri village and Jigaon village. For Kezang, the drive from his hometown of Rupa to these villages barely takes 25 minutes.

As of today, according to Kezang, there are only three active honey hunters left in the community, but even they don’t hunt and harvest regularly. The other three honey hunters are beyond the age of 60 and can’t perform these physically rigorous tasks.

“After the release of the documentary, I was surprised to receive so much feedback from youngsters in our community either living or working out of state. They were surprised to learn about the prevalence of this practice in our community. This goes on to show how far this practice has faded away even within the community,” he says.

“Also, honey is now easily available in stores and modern medicine has lessened the relevance of traditional medicine as well. The respect that these honey hunters once garnered no longer exists,” adds Kezang.

Homegrown Process

Whatever tools they use to harvest and hunt honey are prepared indigenously. Everything is collected from the wild, vine for rope ladders to tongs and spatulas for harvesting honey. Even the bamboo baskets in which they collect honey are made locally. The inner side of the basket is sealed with locally found rubber to make it waterproof.

“In the plains, honey is harvested from trees or the roofs of homes. In West Arunachal, we find these honeycombs on mountain cliffs, the face of a mountain rock or sides of rocky hills. You find it on trees as well, but those combs are small. On hills and mountains, they are very large. These honeycombs can weigh as much as 200 kg,” says Kezang.

In the documentary, Kezang follows the hunting party through dirt tracks in the jungle, crossing river streams and meadows. They even cross mountain tops and move into the dense forest. Including trekking to their spot, the shoot took roughly five days. Immediately after touching base camp, the hunting party begins their preparations for the hunting programme which requires preparation of rope ladders and other materials.

“The ladder we are using is only 40 feet long. Yes, we can extend it beyond 40 feet as well. It depends on the height of the mountain. The higher the mountain, the longer the rope ladder we have to prepare,” says the man leading this hunting party in the documentary.

On the fourth day of the hunting expedition, they proceed to climb up the hill. Being Nature worshippers, once the hunting party reaches the top, they pay homage to her for providing them with food and an abundance of natural resources.

Before they begin climbing up to collect the honey, they wear locally-made protective gear to cover themselves up so that they don’t get stung by honeybees. However, before this happens a series of small fires are lit up to create smoke that would drive some of the bees away.

This hunting party is divided into two groups. While one climbs up on top, which includes the leader and his assistant, the other remains on the foot of this rock face. From the top, the leader and his assistant throw down the rope ladder, which will be used for climbing down the mountain and harvesting the honey from the face of the rock.

Once the leader of the hunting party reaches the spot, a basket is also pulled up where he deposits the honey. Using a spatula and tongs, he breaks and removes all of the wax capping. Once all the capping is removed, he uses the tong to scrape all the semi-solid and raw liquid honey into the basket.

This is an extremely taxing job physically, dangling mid-air on a rope ladder to harvest the honey. When the leader of the hunting party gets tired, his assistant takes over. Throughout this process, there are swarms of bees buzzing all around him with his hand exposed. There is no question they suffer multiple bites. Approaching multiple hives, this goes on for hours.

By the end of it, they have collected 25 litres of honey. They return to their villages with the honey which is further refined and stored.

“In Himalayan regions, the honey is very rich in Vitamins and it has medicinal properties. In our area, the honey is harvested annually twice–once in June/July and the other in October/November, when the Rhododendron flower is in full bloom. It can be used in cough syrups as well. But the process of harvesting it requires real skill,” informs Kezang.

Besides documenting the practice, Kezang also looks to preserve his community’s precious dialect as well. The documentary is dotted with Shertukpen folk songs appreciating and thanking mother nature. One song that stands out is sung by his mother Yeshi Dema Thongdok, which praises beautiful snowcap mountains, the journey of rivers and blossoms, while there is another one sung by Dinglow paying homage to honeybees for producing rich honey to his people.

Deep down, Kezang hopes that the government and the younger generation within the Shertukpen community take up a larger role in preserving this unique practice.

It would be a real shame if it quietly faded away from their collective conscience.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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William Shakespeare’s famous quote goes, “When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions.” This old adage summarises the year 2020 in light of the successive miseries inflicted upon humankind.

But even amidst this gloom, there are inspiring stories.

One such is about three remote villages in the Namsai district of Arunachal Pradesh. It is populated by around 5,200 Chakma tribals.

Despite its distinct identity, this tribe has been a victim of partition. The Bengal Boundary Commission headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe awarded their homeland, the Chittagong Hill Tracts, (CHT) to East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh, in defiance of the Two-Nation Theory.

Religious persecution and construction of the Kaptai Dam, left them stateless and homeless. The Indian government took cognizance of this mistake and welcomed the 35,000 Chakma Buddhists under a Definite Plan of Relief and Rehabilitation. They were settled in the North Eastern Frontier Agency (NEFA), in present Arunachal Pradesh. Today, the Chakma tribals live in three districts–Papumpare, Changlang, and Namsai (previously under the Lohit district) of Arunachal Pradesh.

A majority of the Chakmas depend on agriculture and horticulture. They grow paddy, mustard seeds, buckwheat, seasonal vegetables; others sell these agricultural products and run small local shops.

Unfortunately, even after five decades of historical blunder, the Chakmas are still deprived of citizenship and political rights such as voting, and excluded from Panchayati Raj, government employment. Further, distance from the mainland isolates these villages. Moreover, the Bereng River becomes a ‘River of Sorrow’ in the monsoon season, separating the three villages from the district.

Before 2004, there was a bridge over the river, connecting Gunanagar- the nearest township about seven kilometres from these Chakma villages. When the decades-old hanging bridge was washed away in 2004 due to floods, the villages fell into darkness. There were many accidents and countless losses.

Owing to this formidable impediment, myriads of tragic stories are under-reported every year–of patients’ health deteriorating due to unavailability of medicines, and consequently succumbing to the diseases because they could not be admitted to a hospital. Even in medical exigencies, patients are compelled to languish at their confined homes.

Further, students can’t attend their classes and finally drop out of schools. Hundreds of students are coerced into leaving their studies halfway every year, a stumbling block to the improvement of the poor literacy-rate among the community.

But the villagers have no choice but to cross the river because it is the only convenient and time-saving route to Gunanagar. And they depend on the township for essential commodities, healthcare, markets, higher educational institutions, public offices and connectivity to the rest of the country.

For a long time, they expected the government to build a bridge over the river to mitigate their sufferings, but their patience was tested for too long without yielding any results. Finally, in their desperation, they decided to undertake the construction of a bridge on their own dime.

They formed a Construction Committee for a detailed plan of action–from the procurement of raw materials to implementation. It was led by the Chakma Youth Welfare Association (CYWA). Its president Babulal Chakma says, “My heart is content after completing this bridge.”

The Chakma community also received a donation of Rs 51,000 from the neighbouring Khampti brethren; The Khamptis and Chakmas are the only two communities in the state that have written scripts of their language.

The Construction Committee started working relentlessly in early March 2020, but restrictions due to the COVID-19 lockdown slowed the process. With reduced workers and social distancing measures, a 154-ft-long wooden bridge was constructed by the end of May.

Their total expenditure stood at Rs 4.85 lakh. The villagers contributed as per their financial capacities and succeeded in regaining their lifeline without any support from the government.

With this accomplishment, the villagers are now able to sell their agricultural products without going to the market. The businessmen from neighbouring districts can easily transport agricultural products and goods from the villages to the market places.

History is proof that physical boundaries like rivers and mountains have been used for demarcation of an area. This can impact people’s feelings and emotions with neither side trusting the other. Overcoming the physical barriers by building a bridge enables free movement that eventually strengthens the bonds among the communities living in the same geographical area.

(Written by Sonjit Chakma and Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Repairing government assets, renovating structures or sanctioning little purchases through government protocols can often be a tedious task. However, a group of officers in Arunachal Pradesh have found a new way to ensure the betterment of the lives of school kids (and neglected buildings) does not stop due to red tape – crowdfunding.

The latest example for such work is the long ignored and forgotten former transportation office in Khimiyang of Changlang district, that serves as a school. Its makeover was completed just last week, and today it dazzles with bright pink and yellow walls and is filled with toys and books for children.

“The windows were broken, the ceiling was almost caving in, and the dilapidated walls almost turned the government building into a ruin,” says Todak Riba, Extra Assistant Commissioner of Khimiyang. Todak is an officer from the Arunachal Pradesh Civil Service (APCS).

“The work started and immediately clashed with the Covid-19 lockdown. But a colleague, Prajwal Montri, Medical Officer, Khimiyang PHC, and I decided to get the work done as school classes would resume after that,” Todak said.

With no labour and logistics available, Todak and Prajwal sourced cement and sand to get the building in shape. “After working to our limits, we realised that ceiling was not something that we could fix. Hence, it was only after the lockdown that it was lifted. We procured labourers and finished the work,” he added.

However, success did not come easy. “The school is located 36 km from Changlang, which is the headquarters. It takes 2.5 hours to cover the journey as the roads are bad. We heavily rely on local transport,” said Todak.

WhatsApp Group For Change in Arunachal

The transportation office cost Rs 3 Lakh to repair fully. And where did this money come from? Interestingly, it came from a very special squad of 2016 batch mates of Todak, and their unique crowdfunding project.

This is not the only such effort Todak, and his colleagues have made. In fact, this is almost routine for them, all thanks to a WhatsApp Group.

“It was the brainchild of one of our colleagues, Rome Mele, who planned to start a group for such initiatives named ‘Project 37’,” Todak said. ‘Project 37’ was named for the number of officers who were part of the 2016 batch, from the same cadre.

Rome said the idea came to life in reaction to the shortage of government funds faced by the officers posted in Arunachal.

“The officials from the senior ranks of Deputy Commissioner and Additional Commissioner get annual funds of Rs 50 Lakh and Rs 25 Lakh respectively. However, we, as entry-level officers, have no access to government funds,” Rome explained.

Read More: Last of the Himalayan Honey Hunters: The Amazing Craft of a Brave Arunachal Tribe

The officer said they decided as a group that collective good should be attempted nevertheless, and funds should not be a hurdle.

How it Works

“We decided to pool Rs 1,500 a month and auto-debit it from our bank accounts and put it in a fund. The money collected would be used for micro-infrastructure needs in schools – sports equipment, classrooms, teaching aids and road repairs,” Rome told The Better India.

Over two months, the officers would collect over Rs 2 Lakh, which could then be used for any works across Arunachal.

“A lottery gets drawn every two months, and the selected member suggests several proposals to be executed in his or her jurisdiction,” Rome said. The proposal getting the highest number of votes gets executed, and further proposals keep flowing.

“Who would want to attend classes with no fans?”

Speaking about the initiative, Heera Panggeng, circle officer at Sille-Oyan, said, “People voluntarily take up planting trees or cleaning the area. Such initiatives have gained momentum recently, but nobody wants to talk about education and demand better classrooms.”

Heera said that having a good classroom does not become a political issue in Arunachal. “People hardly come to us and ask for school repairs. They mainly want roads and other infrastructure projects. It gets upsetting to realise that education is not getting its due importance,” the officer added.

The officer feels that with better infrastructure, the attendance of students and their will to attend classes would increase. “The students do not need luxury. But who would want to attend classes with no fans, electricity, toilets, drinking water and basic facilities?” Heera said.

Heera said that many government assets are wasted or lost to encroachments or out of order as they do not get maintained and protected. “We need to change the picture to ensure resources do not get drained,” she added.

Long Term Effects in Arunachal

Rome feels that the project will have multiple effects in future.

“First the officers from our batch are setting an example for coming batches promoting collective good. We hope our initiative acts as a ripple effect for other officers to take cue for such honest and good work,” Rome said.

“Secondly, at the community level, many people have started approaching us for donations and wanting to contribute by their means. The public funds and donations will add to our contributions for better work,” he added.

Moreover, the officer said that people from the concerned department could be held accountable and would push the agencies to do their job. “If they realise that officers are pitching in to fill their shortcomings, they will make some effort to perform their duties honestly,” Rome said.

Rome said that a website is already floated for people to contribute across India, and they plan a series of infrastructure repairs in Arunachal.

“There is already a proposal to repair a girls hostel and to buy computers for children. Other initiatives like the rainwater harvesting, building toilets, internet and even having a playground can get built with the available funds,” he added.

(Edited by Vinayak Hegde)

A couple of weeks ago, we brought you a story about an initiative by an Arunachal Pradesh IAS officer, Devansh Yadav, who started crowdfunding to help bright students from the North-East of India.

We, at The Better India, urged our readers to support the initiative.

Despite scoring more than 80 per cent marks in their class 12 board examinations, the weak financial conditions of their families deterred three young minds — Longsam Sapong, Senthung Yangchang and Leecha Haisa, from exploring their true potential.

Longsam, who secured 89.4 per cent in board exams had given up on his dreams until support arrived.

The appeal for crowdfunding received an overwhelming response from all corners of the country. Within hours, help poured in as people started responding to the call to support education costs for these three students.

Thanks to the generosity of caring readers like you, these students secured a place in Delhi University to pursue higher education.

However, with a little more support, you could help four more students in realising their dream of having a better education.

Ngilyang Reela and Nyamming Khomrang, have both scored 95 per cent marks after studying at a private college in Arunachal Pradesh.

Ngilyang lost her father at a young age while her mother earned through temporary work in a powerhouse. “I have taken admission for BA honours in history from Delhi University. But my mother cannot afford the living expense for all the three years,” she says.

The student says that studying in Delhi means not only being able to understand and prepare for the tough competition in the outside world, but also to build personality and get the necessary exposure.

“Devansh sir has promised to seek funds for our education. I hope to pursue a career in civil services someday,” she tells The Better India.

Nyammink’s father is a farmer and mother works as a lower divisional clerk in a government office. “I had given up the thought to study in Delhi owing to our financial conditions. But now I have hopes to study from a better faculty in Delhi,” she adds.

Karan Thapa scored 91.4 per cent and secured a seat with a private college. “My father is in the defence sector and my mother is a housewife. But given our financial conditions, I never thought of studying in Delhi. Bunnem Tangha madam, of the Women and Child Development Department, motivated me to do so. My parents are also convinced to send me to study in Delhi now,” he adds.

Another student named Sarah Techi is supported by her mother who works as a teacher. “My father is unemployed,” she says and adds, “If we get some help with accommodation in a hostel, it will be safer and cheaper for me to live in an expensive city like Delhi.”

Speaking about his initiative, the Deputy Commissioner of Changlang, Devansh, says, “We managed to collect Rs 3 lakh in the first week itself as help started pouring.”

Devansh says the crowdfunding drive was launched on October 26 with an appeal to cover various expenses. He adds, “The funds collected have helped to arrange for a hostel stay in Delhi where all the students would study in a safe environment. The funds will also cover the college tuition fees, transportation and other living expenses of the students for the next three years.”

However, the IAS officer says, “Initially, we decided to help only three students. But seeing the generous response, we now plan to support four more students with their education by paying for their accommodation.”

Devansh says he had received calls from many parents requesting their children to be supported through the initiative too. “However, we had to decline the request as the initiative is meant only for supporting students scoring high marks but unable to pursue undergraduate courses due to economically weak family background,” he says.

“We need more money to support these students for their accommodation and it would be helpful for the students to have opportunities studying in Delhi University,” he adds.

Devansh says that all the transactions are being ledgered and would be made public to maintain transparency on social media. “The bank accounts of these students are created and the money will be deposited in them soon. The details of the same would be conveyed to the people who have supported the cause through social media,” he adds.

However, reiterating his goal and perseverance, the IAS officer says, “Even if we do not get the required sum to meet the expenses, we will bear the expenses.”

Team TBI requests you to give a further push to their cause through your contributions and allowing these students to secure their future.

To donate click here

In February 2020, Maling Gombu, a Tawang-based social worker and lawyer, wrote to the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) — a statutory body dedicated to the development of village industries, about the potential of a 1,000-year-old paper-making craft of the Monpa tribe in Arunachal Pradesh that was languishing.

Taking note of his letter, the KVIC took appropriate actions. Following months of planning, which was abruptly halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the KVIC launched a Monpa handmade paper making unit on 25 December at an erstwhile abandoned government building in Tawang. Called ‘Mon Shugu’, this fine-textured handmade paper is an integral part of Monpa history.

To make Mon Shugu, the inner fibrous bark of the Shugu Sheng shrub (Daphne papyracea) is dried, boiled with a solution of ash, made into pulp and then cut into sheets of paper. The process of making this paper is entirely organic with no chemical additives. This naturally processed paper possesses strong tensile strength and is durable as well.

“It has been observed that the harvesting of the bark starts from March to April and continues till December before flowering and fruiting. During the reproductive stage, people do not harvest it, keeping in mind that there should be no disturbance in natural regeneration and also because there are other alternate resources. Bark harvested during the earlier part of a year is used for paper-making the rest of the year. To make 1-1.5 kilo of bark about four to five plants are required but it varies with the size of the plant. It has been estimated that about 20 to 30 minutes is required to harvest the same amount of bark. At least two sheets of paper (62cm long and 51cm wide) can be made from the bark of one plant,” notes a March 2006 paper titled — A Traditional Source of Paper Making in Arunachal Pradesh.

A canvas for Buddhist scripts

Mon Shugu has long been an integral part of Tawang’s vibrant tribal culture. Its historical significance is undeniable. In centuries past, this fine-textured handmade paper was used for writing Buddhist scriptures and manuscripts in monasteries, among other texts, while the shrub from which it is sourced, Shugu Sheng, also possesses medicinal value.

“The hand made paper is strong with its visible natural fibres and a unique texture. In ancient times the paper was used for writing Mantras, Sutras and Buddhist epics; it is still used for the contents of prayer wheels, but at present it is also used for artistic purposes and for making exquisite gift items,” notes the 2006 paper.

“Back then, such was the scale of production that Monpas used to sell these papers to countries like Tibet, Bhutan, Thailand and Japan as no paper making industry existed in these countries at that time. However, the local industry gradually began declining and the indigenous handmade paper was taken over by inferior Chinese paper,” notes a release issued by the Press Information Bureau of the Government of India on 26 December 2020.

Mon Shugu is no ordinary kind of paper. Compared to conventional paper, it’s lifespan and durability is much longer. Maling also notes that it’s 80 percent stronger in tensile strength.

“The value of reviving Mon Shugu centers on the preservation of our traditional culture and Buddhist heritage. There is a local market for this paper since we employ it for our daily prayers, packaging special items like butter and other uses. But there is also an international market for it in countries like China and Japan where it’s used for writing scriptures and calligraphy. Japanese artists, particularly, use this paper to write calligraphy. But we will have to properly explore those markets before taking any major steps. Meanwhile, KVIC is also buying this paper and marketing it,” adds Maling, speaking to The Better India.

Past Attempts at Reviving Mon Shugu

The traditional way of making Mon Shugu is time consuming, as its raw materials are not easy to source. Besides, its process of boiling, beating, drying and cutting of paper by hand is a very time consuming process as well. Just to generate a sheet of paper, one would require a day. Therefore, the practice was restricted to a few families in villages like Mukto in Tawang district, which is perched at 10,800 ft above sea level. By the late 1990s, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and KVIC came together to modernise the process from its manual roots.

“In 2003, a common facility was set up in Mukto village in Tawang district, where machines like boilers, beaters and dryers were brought to speed up the different processes at play. The KVIC even sent a group of artisans to Jaipur for a training programme on how to utilise these machines at the Kumarappa National Handmade Paper Institute (KNHPI). The new machinery was expected to reduce the time required to make it. For example, the final process of drying was earlier dependent on the sun. But now there is a drier. The boilers, meanwhile, boil larger quantities of up to 20 kilos. However, for this initiative to work, it required a group effort. But the traditional paper makers, comprising six to seven families in Mukto, could not come together and use it,” notes Maling Gombu, speaking to The Better India.

Maling believes that these families found it more convenient to use the traditional method because they were producing only small quantities for domestic use.

“Using the plant needed a coordinated group effort. They had even registered a society under the chairmanship of the Mukto Circle Officer, but even then it did not take off. Last year, we shifted the equipment from Mukto to Tawang since it wasn’t damaged. My NGO, Youth Action for Social Welfare, joined the revival effort. It has been almost a decade since I reached out to the KVIC for the relocation of the plant from Mukto to Tawang,” he adds.

But, there are villages inhabited by the Monpa people that do not permit taking forest produce outside their villages.

“Getting access to a long supply of Shugu Sheng will be difficult. Producing Mon Shugu at a larger scale will be a real challenge because Shugu Sheng is not easily available. It is available in the Mon region, particularly in the Tawang area, Mukto village and Kalaktang town and Morshing village of West Kameng district in a scattered manner. Collecting it at these altitudes is also a challenge. It is currently being produced for the local market, revival of traditional knowledge and preservation of our culture. We are in talks with the forest department about establishing a plantation of the Shugu Sheng shrub to see long term prospects as it takes about three to five years to harvest it,” says Maling.

Another challenge is to encourage the local community to pick up the practice of making Mon Shugu again.

“Not many Mon tribal families took up this practice. It was primarily families in Mukto village and its surrounding areas who were popular for producing this paper. To encourage the younger generation to take up this practice will be a challenge. However, if we take it up, it will generate additional employment. Villagers will collect the raw material from the forest and we can buy it from them. Moreover, the Shugu Sheng shrub has medicinal value, is not eaten by insects and possesses aromatic qualities as well,” says Maling.

‘Local product, with global potential’

The revival of Mon Shugu in Tawang was also taken up in earnest by the KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena. On his instruction, a team of scientists and officials at Kumarappa National Handmade Paper Institute (KNHPI) were sent to Tawang to establish the paper making unit and train locals. After six months of extensive work, a unit was set up.

Employing nine local artisans, who earn a daily wage of Rs 400, to make 500-600 sheets of Mon Shugu a day, this is a first step towards reviving this ancient practice of the Monpa people.

To begin with, 12 women and 2 men from local villages have been trained to make this paper. A key objective for Saxena is enhancing Mon Shugu’s commercial potential.

“Owing to its peculiarity, this handmade paper has high commercial value that can be harnessed to create local employment in Arunachal. By increasing production of Monpa handmade paper, it can be exported again to other countries and regain the space occupied by China in the last few decades. This is a local product with great global potential, which is aligned with the Mantra of Local to Global given by the Prime Minister,” Saxena said.

Meanwhile, he went onto laud the Arunachal Pradesh government’s support in this endeavour.

As the PIB press release also goes onto state:

The Monpa handmade paper unit will also serve as a training center for the local youths. KVIC will provide marketing support and explore markets for the locally manufactured handmade paper. KVIC plans to set up more such units in different parts of the country. Saxena said KVIC will also begin production of innovative plastic-mixed handmade paper in Tawang that will be crucial for reducing plastic waste in the region.

Beyond economics, it’s about the preservation of a 1,000-year-old heritage. In incentivising today’s generations of Monpas, there is hope that the people of the hills will finally receive the recognition they deserve for reviving this legacy.

Featured image: Source

(Edited by Yoshita Rao)

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Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Ankit Kumar of the 2019 batch—who is currently posted at Bhalukpong and in charge of the Tippi Range of Khellong Forest Division, Arunachal Pradesh—along with his team has been instrumental in giving Sessa Orchid Sanctuary a new lease on life.

Notified in November 1989 under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the sanctuary, often referred to as a ‘Paradise of Blooming Flowers’, is home to more than 236 species of orchids, as well as a wealthy diversity of mushrooms and other medicinal plants.

Speaking to The Better India, Ankit says, “The orchid sanctuary was inaugurated way back in 1981 but with no real infrastructure upgradation, there has been no ecotourism that was developed in the area. While there was a trekking point, there was no conservation trail and that made this area not very attractive to tourists.” One of the things Ankit wanted to do after taking charge of the area was to put this sanctuary on every tourists’ list.

In November 2020, a Gram Panchayat meeting was held and Ankit mentions how the general consensus of everyone involved was taken into consideration while drawing up a revival plan.

He says, “While year after year, tourists in large numbers would make their way to the monastery town of Tawang, they would drive past the decrepit entrance of the Sessa Orchid Sanctuary but only few would make the stop and visit it.”

Spread over 100 sq kms, this Sactuary houses almost 236 documented orchids, of the over 1,256 orchids found in the country. “The development of the sanctuary was planned in three phases; one to beautify the entrance and facade, to develop the 1 km conservation trail, and an 8-km trekking stretch which ends at a waterfall,” he says. What’s amazing is so far only a very small portion of the sanctuary has been explored and there are also some trees in which multiple species of orchids grow naturally, says Ankit.

A community initiative

With the support of the local community, the team led by Gram Panchayat member, Tsering Meiji, and officers like Divisional Forest Officer of Khellong District, V K Jawal, identified some key areas of the Sessa Orchid Sanctuary and planned a renewal mission. The identified areas got a facelift, over the span of 21 days. The pictures below are a testament to the change that has been achieved.

Speaking about how they managed this feat in such a short span of time, Ankit says, “We decided to get down to it, get our hands dirty, and actually do the ground work.”

“There was nothing that was out of bounds — whether it was to move big stones or clean up and dig up, the community was ready to pitch in at every step.”

What also helped is that the community understood how much this sanctuary would boost their local economy and tourism, says Ankit. Every small detail has been thought through, and Ankit says, “The local community was very mindful of how resources should be used, not to add any unnecessary waste to the project, and to work along with the team helped in completing the project in 21 days.”

In addition, one of the biggest changes brought about by the development of this sanctuary is that the local tribal community have assured the authorities of staying away from indulging in any act that could lead to deforestation, soil erosion, overgrazing, or indulging in any illegal trade.

Growing hybrid orchids

Did you know that the cultivation and harvesting of orchids is prohibited under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972? Therefore, only hybrid varieties of orchids can be cultivated and harvested. “Keeping this law in mind, hybrid varieties of orchids are being developed in our laboratory in Tippi, adjacent to Sessa Orchid Sanctuary.”

Ankit says that at every few steps forest officials have been stationed to ensure that no one plucks the orchids. “What’s incredible is how the community has come together for this. We are now getting ideas and suggestions for the sanctuary from them. Photography points to organising cultural programmes. These are some of the initiatives we are launching,” he adds.

Do note that if you plan to visit this scenic sanctuary, it is advisable to plan your trips between the months of October to May. Everyone, specifically those who are keen on nature photography and flora enthusiasts, should visit the sanctuary. One can spend upto 5 hours walking around the sanctuary, so do account for this time when you plan your visit.

(Edited by Yoshita Rao)

It has been an eventful month for 25-year-old Kekho Thiamkho, the Hip Hop artist from Arunachal Pradesh, who is popularly known by the moniker ‘K4 Kekho’.

After confirmation on 4 March that he will feature as a rapper/songwriter in the upcoming Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon-starrer Bollywood film, Bhediya, Kekho has helped organise donation drives for Longliang village that suffered a devastating fire on 18 March.

Located in Lazu Circle of Tirap district, Arunachal Pradesh, Longlian suffered two casualties. To make matters worse, 114 thatched houses, including community halls and granaries, were burnt down. Led by the All Tirap Changlang Namsai and Longding Students’ Union Itanagar and the Rajiv Gandhi University’s Tirap Changlang Namsai and Longding Students’ Union, the donation drive in Itanagar over three days collected nearly Rs 6.7 lakhs for the victims.

We caught up with Kekho following the conclusion of a three-day donation drive in Itanagar which lasted from 20 to 22 March. Speaking to The Better India, Kekho talks about how the fire in Longliang hit close to home. His native village of Lower Chinhan falls under Lazu Circle. On the intervening night of 18 and 19 March, he posted a video on his Facebook page with an appeal to the government for urgent assistance.

“I could relate to events in Longliang because the same thing happened in Lower Chinhan a couple of years ago, when more than 40 houses were burnt down in a fire. Besides urgent assistance for the residents who lost their homes, I also appealed to the government for better infrastructure. The village has no proper road connectivity or other modern amenities. It was an emotional day, and I was really motivated to do something for them,” says Kekho.

After consulting Sange Droma Bodoi, a good friend and CEO of Arunachal Today, a local news media outlet, he got in touch with the student unions. After meeting them on 19 March, they decided to organise donation drives from different locations in the city the next day.

Offering regular updates of the donation drives on his Facebook page alongside Arunachal Today, they reached out to a large audience online and offline.

“People in the village need relief immediately. Even though the state government and local administration are offering financial and other assistance, we feel it’s important to supplement their efforts. These victims are without a roof over their head. I feel more people should donate money to those in need of help. Since I am a struggling artist, I wasn’t in a position to donate a few lakhs. Instead, I decided to donate my time,” he says.

Now, Kekho feels that his immediate duties are done. It’s up to the respective students’ unions to ensure money reaches the intended beneficiaries, while he gets back to his music.

Falling in Love With Music

From the Ollo (Nocte) indigenous community, Kekho’s love for music was first inspired by his father, Najen Thiamkho, a constable with the Arunachal Pradesh Police.

“My father had a massive collection of audio cassettes ranging from Bollywood to international pop artists like Michael Jackson and Michael Learns to Rock (MLTR). The collection also included Sufi music, semi-classical tracks and local songs as well. He would often sing at home. When his friends would come over, drink wine and play Antakshari, my father and I would sing together while others would shower us with compliments,” he recalls.

Najen always encouraged his son’s interest in music, but like many parents in Arunachal, he wasn’t sure whether Kekho would survive without a secure government job to fall back on. Besides music, however, Najen also encouraged his son to learn spoken English properly. He believed that learning English would help his son land a better government job. It was this introduction to English language learning which first sparked his love for Hip Hop.

“My father bought a book home for me to learn English, but that wasn’t helpful. To learn it, I started listening to English songs starting with Michael Jackson. When my father bought me my first MP4 player in school, my first objective was to download all of Michael Jackson’s songs. But I asked people at the local internet cafe to transfer all the English songs they had into my MP4 player. Hip Hop found me through this process,” says Kekho.

Besides singing/rapping to songs by international artists like Eminem and Lil Wayne, he would also regularly watch the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Through these mediums, he not only improved his vocabulary but also began ascertaining the different tonalities of English speaking. But out of all the music genres, Hip Hop stuck with him.

“Initially, I would imitate artists like Eminem and Lil Wayne, but after a point that seemed like a futile exercise because they were on another level. By the time I was in high school around Class 11, I began writing my own lyrics with a mix of broken English and broken Hindi. In Class 12, I performed my first ever rap song at a school function. While teachers weren’t very fond of my rap performance, fellow students went crazy because that’s the first time they saw someone perform a Hip Hop song in front of them,” he recalls.

Following the electric reception he got, Kekho knew that Hip Hop would become the medium through which he would express his emotions, while telling stories about the self and society.

Hip Hop For Life

The next big turning point came during Arunachal Pradesh’s inaugural Rap Riot competition in 2015. Competing with 10 other rappers in his final year of college, Kekho came first. This is the moment, he believes, when his music career actually began.

Speaking to The Better India in an earlier interview, Kolkata-based independent rapper and producer, Vikramjit Sen (aka Feyago), talked about this moment.

“We had a rap battle in Arunachal, and this young man called Kekho won. He was driven. His father was there at the time, telling him that this was a total waste of time. However, when the boy went to his dad with the winner’s cheque, what we saw was a parent eventually seeing this as something his son could pursue in the future,” said Feyago.

“Back then, all the craze was about Rock music and Metal. In my opinion, even today, people in Arunachal who love Rock music, Bollywood music and Metal, don’t really respect Hip Hop. But since I started making music, the Hip Hop scene in Arunachal has grown tremendously. There is a budding rapper in every colony across cities like Itanagar,” he says.

However, Kekho doesn’t like to call himself a ‘pioneer’ of Hip Hop music in Arunachal. “I just played my part and witnessed the Hip Hop scene rise in our state,” he adds.

‘I am an Indian’

Later that year, he wrote a song called ‘I Am An Indian’, responding to the spate of racist and xenophobic attacks against people from the Northeast in cities like Delhi and Bengaluru.

“I had to find something relevant to rap about so that people could ascribe real value to my art. If I can compose and rap a song about a subject which touches people’s hearts, it’ll be worth remembering. Recording this track on my mobile phone, I shared it with my friends on WhatsApp and Facebook. After a few weeks, people started talking about this song. Even before I recorded the song in a proper studio, people would ask me to perform it in different gatherings. Bengia Morto, a friend, came to me and said we need to make a music video for this song because more people needed to hear it. After all, music is a better way of spreading awareness about racism against Northeasterners than textbooks,” he says.

But that music video didn’t come for a few years. Instead, Kekho was honing his craft and putting out the occasional track. Finally, in 2018, his search for someone to help produce ‘I Am An Indian’ in a real studio and make a music video on the same, came to an end.

Approaching Hilang Nima, a local producer, they re-recorded the song and made a music video alongside close friends and long-time collaborators Bengia Morto, the director, Nyago Ete, the cinematographer. This video went viral with over a 1 million views, and many mainstream Indian publications covered it. “This video changed my life,” he adds.

He hasn’t looked back since. Besides regularly putting out songs expressing personal bravado, the pride in belonging to tribal communities, and socially conscious lyrics, Kekho has collaborated with many artists from the Northeast in cyphers and other tracks.

Take the example of Yoksa, a Hip Hop track song by Arunachalee producer DJ Bom, which features Kekho on vocals. With nearly 850,000 views on YouTube, this song pays homage to the traditional values associated with Yoksa (Tibetan swords) of the indigenous Adi tribe.

As the song’s YouTube description notes, “the beat is a combination of digitally produced hip hop sounds and the sounds of yoksa recorded in a studio accompanied by the vocal performance of a traditional Tapu War dance crew.” A personal favourite is his verse in the Northeast Cypher 2020, which saw contributions from rappers across the Northeast.

Never Giving Up on a Dream

Throughout this journey, his family has backed him. Then there are two of his closest professional collaborators and personal friends Bengia Morto and Nyago Ete, who have sometimes made Kekho’s music videos for free. Other well-wishers include Katung Nabam and Yachang Chan. Since his career took off, Kekho has been supporting his music dreams by working on background scores and music for documentaries, feature films and short films made in Arunachal.

“I also work on dubbing and sound designing projects. But then again, it’s not easy to find work because there isn’t an organised film industry here. The money I get goes into buying petrol, purchasing things for my kitchen and making music in my home studio. My father does his best to support me as well, but we have a big family. I don’t want to exploit my friends into making free music videos. That’s why I’m taking my time working and earning in different spaces to put out new content because I’d like to pay them for their work and put out quality content. So far, I have earned my name in the game and the love of my people. I want to keep it real and not give people the impression that I’m rich and fancy,” he says.

However, there are times when Kekho feels that he should give up his music dreams and find a ‘proper job’. This happens, particularly, when he sees artists who have parents with deeper pockets support their careers. These artists put out music videos regularly. “I can’t expect too much of my father because he has a large family to support. So, I’ve gone independent to fund my content on YouTube,” he adds.

Having said all that, things are really looking up for Kekho. A couple of months ago, he was approached by Amar Kaushik, a Bollywood director, who was doing a recce for the upcoming shoot of Bhediya. As per reports, the movie will be shot in Ziro, Lower Subansiri district, Sagalee, Papum Pare district and parts of Pakke Kessang district.

“Amar Sir approached me to compose a song for Bhediya. I was competing with a couple of other artists as well for the same spot. They were given the same brief. Although he expressed his desire to see me come on board, I wasn’t sure about making it till I heard Varun Dhawan Sir publicly mention my name in that official press conference. My entire family was overjoyed when the news came through officially. I remember hugging my parents and wife in excitement. Hopefully, I will be featured in another song, besides the one I have already submitted, and the movie goes ahead as planned,” he says.

(Edited by Yoshita Rao)

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Police in Delhi have collected Rs 11 crore in fines for various rule violations during the COVID-19 lockdown. The collected fine is submitted to the government treasury. However, in East Siang, a district in Arunachal Pradesh, an interesting use of the Rs 3.24 lakh collected is being made by the district administrators.

The district administration, under the aegis of District Collector Dr Kinny Singh, have set up ‘COVID Care Banks’. “We saw that the second wave of COVID-19 had a major impact on rural India. When we started mass testing in the district, we found that several residents had tested positive,” says Dr Singh speaking to The Better India.

“In the district, people were coming to the health centres complaining of fever but many of them did not even own a thermometer so checking their temperature was out of the question,” she says.

While many of the residents were testing positive for COVID-19, the good thing was that they were all either asymptomatic or had a mild case of COVID-19. This meant that a majority of those who tested positive could be kept under self-isolation at home.

“However, we realised that since these homes did not even have thermometers, staying in home isolation and monitoring their vitals would be a difficult task. This was one of the reasons why we started the COVID Care Banks,” says Dr Singh.

“In smaller districts, the connection that residents have with their circle office [tehsil office] is very strong. The administrative officers in the circle office are also involved in monitoring those who have tested COVID-19 positive,” says Dr Singh. It was therefore decided to use these circle offices as their base and set up the care banks there.

It was during one of the weekly meetings that it was decided to use these offices as a point for stocking up on medical essentials and allow people to borrow and use these resources for the duration of their home isolation. She adds here that the equipment can be taken free of cost, and returned once the patients test negative.

“We have eight circle offices and each one is equipped with 70 thermometers, 35 pulse oximeters, masks, sanitisers and one oxygen concentrator as well,” she adds.

This idea was mooted during a weekly review meeting of the district COVID core committee and Dr Singh adds that this group was constituted to keep a tab on the number of cases, vaccination drives and other issues related to COVID-19 in the district. “We were able to act swiftly on this because of how clued in the circle officers have been with their own unit,” she says.

The idea, she says, is to create an institution at the circle office level, where individuals, companies and organisations can come forward and donate equipment as well. “As of now we have Vision IAS, a coaching institute for civil service aspirants, who have come forward to help in procuring the oxygen concentrators. We urge others who are in a position to help to do the same,” she says.

Speaking about the COVID-19 violations that led to the collection of the money, Dr Singh says, “About 80 per cent of the violations were related to not wearing a mask and public spitting was a close second. The fine amount collected for both these offences is Rs 500 per person.” If there are curfew violations by individuals or shop owners, then the amount collected goes up to Rs 2000, depending on the violation.

Currently, the number of active cases in East Siang is at 159. 

“Using the fine money to implement this initiative was made possible because of the timely authorisation by the State Government,” says Dr Singh. With 90 percent of the population above the age of 45 vaccinated with the first shot, Dr Kinny Singh is confident of having the entire eligible population vaccinated soon.

(Edited by Yoshita Rao)

Anini – the headquarter of the Dibang valley in Arunachal Pradesh is referred to as the ‘Last Town of India’. With 8,000 residents, it also holds the distinction of being the least populated district in India.

On 6 April 2021, Bailey bridge, which connects the district headquarters with the rest of the State, collapsed because of an overloaded truck that was passing through. What followed was nothing short of a nightmare for the people of the district.

This was around the time when the country was grappling with the second wave of COVID-19 and the breaking down of the only bridge that connected the people of the district to the mainland posed a huge challenge. At the time of the bridge collapsing, the district had close to 100 active COVID-19 cases, of which some needed emergency medical aid and oxygen as well.

Unfortunately, even the nearest oxygen refill point was two days away and with the bridge breaking down, the time it took only increased.

However, District Commissioner (DC) Minga Sherpa and his entire team jumped in to find solutions to the problem at hand.

“Bailey bridge by itself is almost 10 years old and was a temporary bridge, to begin with. The collapse of this bridge brought vehicular movements to a complete halt. This, unfortunately, was the second time it has collapsed. Being a remote district, getting men and material to re-build the bridge takes a very long time,” says DC Sherpa speaking to The Better India.

Two months later, the materials and manpower to rebuild the bridge have now arrived at the site. “For the last two months, we had no reliable way to get to the district headquarters. There was one kaccha road but maintaining it in the rains is extremely difficult,” he adds.

For close to three weeks there was no road connectivity to the district and a traditional rope bridge was built, using bamboo, to ferry the medical equipment, medicines and vaccines to the district.

Speaking about the history of the district, DC Sherpa says, “Until 20 years ago, the only way to get supplies to the district was via helicopters. No road connected the district to the rest of the world.” He also mentions that for a population of about 8,000 people, there are only two mobile towers in the district, which also work sporadically.

Life comes to a grinding halt

“In times like these when the entire country is dealing with a pandemic, not having good mobile connectivity and with the only source of physical connection to the State being cut off, it was a difficult phase,” he says. The administration deployed as many people as they could to physically ferry the equipment to the other side. In times like these, what has helped is relying on the traditional methods of communication.

DC Sherpa says, “We resorted to using trucks owned by shopkeepers to make visits to each colony. They take grocery orders from the people and have them delivered as well. To keep this system going, we are bearing the costs of fuel and also giving these vehicles the permits they need to travel during the lockdown.”

When the vaccines arrived, they needed to be dispatched from the cold chain point and reach the other cold chain point within the same day.

If that did not happen, there was a risk of the entire set of vaccines becoming unusable due to spoilage. “These circumstances have sometimes meant that we use four vehicles to transport the vaccines. Sometimes the vehicle goes from point A to B and then the staff have had to physically carry it up to another point from where it is loaded into a vehicle again,” he says.

Currently, things are under control with a temporary Bailey bridge being built by the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDC). However, DC Sherpa says that since the bridge is at the river bank at a flood level a single day of heavy rains submerges the bridge and renders it unfit for sure. “Given the lockdown, the team that was supposed to help build the bridge was held up. Now with things opening up, the team has arrived and we do feel that there will be some respite for us,” he concludes.

(Edited by Yoshita Rao)

From when he was little, Tashi Wangchu loved the Rocky series, starring Sylvester Stallone, which often played on HBO. He says he was fascinated by the depiction of fitness, training and boxing in the film. In fact, he often imitated the famous actor by running in the jungles near his hometown Gyankhar village in Tawang of Arunachal Pradesh.

But as he grew into his teenage years, Tashi’s interest faded. “I had no support, source of inspiration or the right facilities to follow my interest,” he tells The Better India.

Tashi went to Itanagar, the state capital, to pursue higher studies. Here, he became addicted to smoking. The habit continued even during his graduation years, when he moved to Delhi in 2012 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in political science. “With such a habit, my dream of fitness was over,” he recalls.

However, Tashi says that during his stay in Delhi, he learned about Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), a hybrid combat sport that involves techniques such as boxing, wrestling, karate, jujitsu, judo and other disciplines. The two opponents are to strike, grapple and use ground fighting abilities to try and defeat one another.

“I also found training centres and gyms that offer courses for the sport. But I had no money to take coaching. My father is a labourer and works odd jobs to make a living. He expected me to complete my education and bag a stable government job. He did not encourage me to pursue the sport,” the 24-year-old says.

But despite odds and no formal training, today Tashi has achieved his dream and emerged victorious by winning the 4th Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) India National competition by a knockout. And all this by self-coaching on YouTube.

Running with a sack full with stones

Tashi says he decided to pursue a career in sports despite the lack of motivation from his parents or support from friends. “But I had made up my mind. I quit smoking and stopped hanging out with friends who discouraged me,” he says.

“There was no awareness about the sport in my village, and finding a coach was a far-fetched idea. So I logged on to YouTube and started basic training. I found coaches across the world who conducted online tutorials, and took part in them,” he explains.

Tashi says that as he began training, his friends, family and relatives mocked him. “They thought I had gone crazy,” he chuckles.

He would wake up at 4 am and start his training by warming up, running, and then moving on to intense workouts. To build endurance, he found various means to modify the exercises. “I carried a sack full of stones and ran for 4-5 km. At times, I lifted stones and rocks as deadweights. Sometimes it would be snowing, or I suffered a muscle ache, but I never missed a single day,” he adds.

After finishing his workout at 8 am, Tashi would rest during the day and begin training on his boxing and wrestling techniques between 6 pm and 9 pm. “I followed all the tutorials to understand the basics and learn the nitty-gritties. I could manage boxing, but there was no one to wrestle with. I did not have a friend to dedicate time for me or help me for training,” he adds.

He notes that the same schedule continues even today.

Tashi says that more than the training, it was his struggle with proper diet that he found challenging.

“I was slim and had to gain weight. I referred to different experts on YouTube, but diet is very personal as it requires an understanding of your own body. I ate a banana, eggs, dry fruits, meat and consumed milk. The heavy intake of meat affected my stamina. Hence, I reduced meat and increased green vegetables,” he says.

Tashi says that he is still confused about what to refer to online and continues to make changes in his diet plans.

For five years, he trained consistently and groomed his body until he decided to participate in the national competition. “Even after the physical transformation, my parents and friends doubted I would succeed. They told me working on the body alone would not help as I had not undergone formal training,” he says, adding that he received the same response when he reached Delhi at the MMA training centre for trials.

“I stayed there for 15 days for trials and selection, where the participants laughed or felt amazed that I had signed up without any formal coaching. Moreover, I trained in isolation without posting any bits of the process on social media. For some, it became all the more difficult to believe that I had no training whatsoever with the body I had built. Others underestimated me,” Tashi adds.

But he says he knew precisely what the expectations of the judges were. He understood the basics of the game, the rules, and the kind of performance he had to deliver. “I had absorbed all the online sessions, and completed the three rounds in the game in 25 minutes. I used to set a timer and follow boxing, rope climbing, speed weight, running, spring and jumping,” he adds.

He qualified and won all three rounds in the Nationals, held on 19 February this year in Uttar Pradesh, earning him gold.

‘This is just the beginning’

Winning this award not only instilled confidence in him, but also changed the perspective of his parents.

“My father used to doubt me, and mother offered minimal support. But now they are proud of my achievements as it has also earned me popularity in the village,” he says.

Tashi says that the Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu also recognised his achievements and offered assistance. In addition, Dream Sports Foundation has also extended hands for further training. The organisation is the philanthropic arm of Dream Sports, which supports grassroot athletes and the Indian sports ecosystem.

A representative from the company tells The Better India, “Tashi’s achievements are commendable and he has the potential to reach heights. We are working to provide him with a coach and take care of his diet. The team will also work on training aspects including strength conditioning as well as refining his boxing and wrestling.”

The representative adds that plans are underway to send Tashi for training to Singapore and Kazakhstan.

Meanwhile, Tashi says he is not getting carried away with his recent achievements, and with the necessary support, he will be able to become a professional player. “I am an amateur and only know the basics. My dedicated efforts for five years have reaped expected results. Hard work is the key to success. I understand that this is just the beginning and that I have a long road ahead. I dream of winning a gold for India,” he adds.

Tashi also shares some tips from his training for beginners:

1. Endurance: Tashi says running 2-3 km downhill and upwards is one way to build endurance. He suggests filling a sack with weights up to 10-15 kilos and running with it. “This helps increase speed, strength and agility in the lower body. I do it four times a week,” he says.
2. Strength: Lifting deadweight once a week can help in developing shoulders, he notes. Boxing or lifting stones also work. “I used to carry a punching bag on my shoulders that weighed 75 kilos for five floors,” he says.
3. Flexibility: Stretches, jumping, and rock climbing bring flexibility, he says.
4. Basic techniques: Training sessions on running, footwork, jabs, uppercut and others are available on YouTube and help to improve performance, he says.
5. Meditation: Tashi says he meditates 15 minutes every day, which helps improve his presence of mind, reduces stress, and enables him to focus better. “A combat game requires physical and mental power. One has to be mentally strong and focused, which can become a key element between losing or winning a match,” he says.

Edited by Divya Sethu

Did you know that the feeling of love can be described in 9,000 words if we put all the Indian languages together? A country that is often touted as the treasure trove of linguistic diversity, has 780 languages of which 600 of them are on the verge of becoming non-existent. 

In the last 60 odd years itself, close to 250 languages have become extinct in India, which means speakers of these languages have migrated onto other languages. This also means that they have left behind a significant part of their culture and identity. 

So how does one go about preserving a language? 

There are several routes like commercialising the language and encouraging it in school curriculum. 

But what happens when the script of a language is missing? The ability of putting our thoughts into words and spreading information is worthless if there is no script. With no documentation of words that we speak, how does one pass it on to the next generation? 

Even if a parent tries to teach their child the language, it will differ slightly from what their neighbours might teach their kids. This difference between spoken words eventually increases to a point where it becomes two different dialects. 

This was the case with the Tangsa tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. The community is further divided into 40 sub-tribes, each having its own dialect. Over the years, the meaning of sentences and words grew so apart that one sub-tribe could not understand the other. 

The population of the Tangsa community is roughly around one lakh and with each tribe speaking its own dialect, the danger of extinction becomes two-fold. 

This fear is what prompted Lakhum Mossang from Changlang district to develop a common script that could be used by the entire community. 

He began his work in 1990, and after a grueling 30 years, the script was finally developed in 2019. However, he passed away a year later. Today, his friend Wanglung Mossang is carrying forward his legacy.

Not Lost in Translation

Wanglung, a farmer by profession, has come forward to teach the script to college students and graduates. Fifteen students are already in the process of learning. 

He is also a part-time cultural consultant to foreigners and while sharing about his heritage, he realised that the exact pronunciations of certain words were getting lost. So, he decided to collaborate with Lakhum and learnt the script seven years ago. 

“To communicate with other community members, we have to use Assamese, English or Hindi. But this common script helps us save our folklores, songs, poetries, rituals and more. It has been accepted by the state government and soon will be introduced in the school curriculum. Chief Minister, Prema Khandu, will launch the book of Tangsa script on teacher’s day,” Wanglung tells The Better India. 

The script is unlike any other language script, as it has 48 vowels and 31 consonants.

“In our dialects, the meaning of words change as per the tone. So, the script is developed on the basis of tone so that each sub-tribe can write in their own dialect using the vowels and consonants that are common across all dialects,” he says. 

One of the milestones for Tangsa community was when the script was converted and adopted into font style on Microsoft Word. 

“It is a great step forward. It is so exciting to be learning about a script and a whole system of writing created by an inspired person and being taught by community members like Wanglung Mossang, who is so committed to preserving their unique culture,” Stephen Morey, a linguistic research scholar and professor from Australia told EastMojo, who also contributed in converting the handwritten script in Microsoft Word.

Felix Anthony, a resident of Neotan village, says language is what gives identity to indigenious tribal communities. “It is easy to lose cultures and traditions in the absence of a proper dialect and its script. Oral traditions are prone to be forgotten, if not given much literary credit. Having a proper script not only makes the language legible but it also helps in preserving and promoting culture,” he says. 

The efforts taken by Lakhum, Wanglung and the entire tribal community that has embraced this common script despite their differences, gives hope to the future of languages in India. If a small tribe can develop an entire script from scratch, the possibility of preserving those languages that are on the edge of extinction seems feasible.

Featured image: Wanglung teaching Tangsa to his students.

All images are sourced from Felix Anthony.

Edited by Yoshita Rao

There are still many areas in our world that are unexplored, their secrets hidden often due to their inaccessibility.

Many high altitude areas in the north-east Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh fall into this category. WWF-India has been working in the western part of Arunachal Pradesh since 2002 with the local communities and government agencies for conservation of biodiversity. WWF-India, jointly with the local villagers, initiated field surveys across Tawang and West Kameng districts of western Arunachal Pradesh. The present survey was conducted as part of the initiative to document the biodiversity of the Thembang Bapu Community Conserved Area (CCA).

The Sighting
During the survey, near Potok area at an altitude of 4300m within the Thembang Bapu CCA, WWF-India’s team came across a rare mammal-the black pika (Ochotona nigritia), hitherto unreported from India. It was found in the rocky burrows of a shrubland habitat with abundant Rhododendron on which it was observed feeding.

Video of black pika recorded during the sighting

Click here if you are unable to view the video.

The black pika, closely related to rabbits and hares, is a small mammal with rounded ears, short limbs, and black fur. It was earlier discovered in Pianma in the Yunnan province of China in 2000.

The pikas or mouse hares are Himalayan dwelling lagomorphs (meaning hare-shaped). India has seven pika species with the black pika slated to perhaps become the eighth. The new species can be distinguished from all other pika species found in India from its characteristic overall black coat colour.

Like many of the smaller high altitude dwelling mammals pikas are considered “Allogenic” engineers i.e. the burrows which they construct to live are used by other species such as birds, reptiles and other smaller mammals. In addition, pikas play a key role as prey to various high altitude predators like birds of prey and small and large carnivores.

Aishwarya Maheshwari, Senior Project Officer, WWF-India adds, “This pika resembles the one discovered in China but it urgently needs genetic confirmation to know whether this newly reported pika is the same or a new subspecies.”

The survey team consisted of Aishwarya Maheshwari, Kripaljyoti Mazumdar and Pema Wange of WWF-India.

The Landscape
The Western Arunachal Landscape (WAL) covers nearly 7000 sq. km in the West Kameng and Tawang districts of Arunachal Pradesh. More than 30 mammals are reported from this area including threatened species like the snow leopard and red panda. WWF-India is working with the villagers of Tawang and West Kameng districts in Western Arunachal for the conservation of forests and wildlife. Encouraged by WWF-India, the village panchayats have adopted resolutions and issued notifications declaring parts of the forest area under their ownership as Community Conserved Area (CCA). The communities have demarcated two such CCAs – Thembang Bapu CCA and Pangchen Lumpo Muchat CCA.

The Chief Wildlife Warden of Arunachal Pradesh, Mr. J.L. Singh, IFS, said, “These areas are quite unexplored and I hope these surveys by WWF-India will increase our knowledge about the wildlife found in such high altitude areas.”

Pijush Dutta, Senior Landscape Coordinator, WAL Programme Office, WWF-India concludes, “Though the terrain is difficult, we are making new discoveries whenever we go out for exploration. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as we believe many more discoveries will follow.”

Photos of black pika from the sighting

Click here if you are unable to watch the photo slideshow.

Those of us who live in urban environments can seldom understand the impact of an abstract concept like education. It is another matter that education itself may mean completely different things to different people. However, the ability to read, write, enjoy, and be inspired by ideas transmitted across time and space on a printed page is an abstraction whose power can only be understood by its absence, something that only distance can provide a proper perspective to.

But one must wonder at the drive that can inspire an individual to single-handedly promote reading habits in the hills of Arunachal Pradesh. Shri Sathyanarayan Mundayoor—Sathyanarayanji to adults and Uncle Moosa to the young—has spent 32 years in the North East part of India influencing the education and reading movements at various levels. In 1979, he quit a government job in the income tax department to find a way of life with more meaning than money. A chance advertisement led him to apply for a position with the Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya school movement that was then starting to spread its roots in the north-east. He worked as the education officer for the VKV schools till 1996, where he influenced many young people with his ideas; testimonies are not hard to find for him, practically everyone in any VKV school remembers the impact he made on them. The VKV schools themselves are an outstanding monument to education, and currently 34 VKV schools in Arunachal Pradesh continue to illumine the lives of many young students who would otherwise not be able to even study.

Meanwhile, fed up with the unimaginative teaching methods that haunt our school system, Uncle Moosa again decided to branch out from the confines of formal education. Several years of experimentation saw him dabble with things as diverse as a one year program in non-formal education to the cultivation of medicinal plants. He felt, however, the need to stimulate the reading habits of children and allow them to discover the power of imagination. The answer to this call took the form of book exhibitions; he would haul books in trunks to far flung villages using the abysmal state transport in an effort to promote reading among tribal children. He was planting seeds of a different kind. In 2007, in collaboration with the Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children (AWIC) and the Vivekananda Trust (of which he is a member), a gift of children’s’ books and magazines became the first library as part of the Lohit Youth Library Movement in the government town of Tezu. The library was named the Bamboosa Library after the bamboo plant. Today, 13 such libraries can be found in off-the-beaten-path places like Wakro, Chongkham, Anjaw, and Lathao.

The effort to widen this circle of reading and associate activities has seen workshops on story telling and reading by various experts. Recognition for the library movement also took the library activists to New Delhi for the International Conference on Children’s Libraries in 2009, where they performed skits, poetry recitations and dances in the presence of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and subsequently interacted with him. The impact of the library movement has attracted several eminent patrons including the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh Shri. JJ Singh, ministers, and several IAS officers.

I had the privilege of visiting the Bamboosa Library at Tezu and the Apne Library at Wakro in September 2011 and interacting with the readers and other school children through a series of theatre workshops. It was astonishing to see the confidence with which these children spoke and performed. It was a marvelous example of what the power of reading can do to a child’s self-esteem. Over a period of 3-4 days each at Wakro and Tezu we developed and performed Dr. Seuss’s powerful poem, The Lorax. The children were at their expressive best as they informed the audience of the ills of deforestation.

From my understanding of the current situation in Arunachal, these are uncertain times for the people. Student politics, drug abuse among youth, tribal conflicts with governance, and the lack of a career path for women are preventing the progress of society. At such a critical time, the library movement is doing a wonderful service to the land by planting the seeds of reading and education in the minds of the youth. Further, the work of Uncle Moosa and those of his ilk are the very examples that we in India need as our society moves towards a selfish, consumerist way of life. Such people and organizations are the good news that society needs to hear about.

Meena Vaidyanathan continues her exploration of India’s little-known rivers to enlighten and enchant our readers with the little secrets they hold. In the second post in this series (read the first one here), she gets lured by the lilting beauty of the Jia-Bharali in Assam, all along the Nameri National Park.

The promise of impending showers didn’t deter our motley crowd from picking up our backpacks and campstools from setting out to explore the part of the Kameng river that flows in Assam.

The Kameng has its origins in the glaciers of Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh, close to the Indo-Tibet border. It flows through Bhalukpong in Arunachal Pradesh and Sonitpur district of Assam, before joining the Brahmaputra at Tezpur, just east of the Kolia Bhomora bridge. The Kameng is a fascinating river with surprisingly consistent rapids, deep gorges, pristine camps and well kept old forests around it.

We decided to explore along the Jia-Bhorelli as the Kameng is called in Assam, and visit the Nameri National Park. The Nameri reserve is on the Tezpur-Bomdila highway, passing through the quaint town of Balipara. The “non-existent” road from Tezpur is treacherous to say the least, and people with bad backs won’t find the 40-odd km stretch of the road to the river around the reserve exactly pleasant. But the beautiful people enroute who are happy to serve fresh tea made with goat’s milk, the simplicity of the lifestyle of the local communities, the rich vegetation and the calling of the river that can be breathtakingly calm and fiery at the same time can be very addictive and help one overcome the pain of the drive. Funnily enough, we also found out from the locals that the river’s original name Bharali, was spelt Bhorelli by the Britishers and it has stuck since then.

We must have driven about 10 kms ahead of the Nameri reserve when we spotted a stretch of the river that seemed pure bliss. The water, crystal clear, almost a rarity in many parts of India, and cold enough to refresh the most tired soul, was just what we needed. Our group was made up of people ranging from age one through forty, and the cool waters managed to get everyone of us to clap in glee! The river served as a border to

the park, and we could see the thick forest with tall trees to the other side of the river. As we walked on the shore, a couple of people in a raft with some angling gear arrived floating down with the current, probably ending their fish hunt. It was heartening to note that the community around the area most famous for “Mahaseer” angling is amazingly passionate about breeding the dwindling golden mahaseer, even if the only aim is to have more of them to catch!! Mahaseer, known as the tiger of Indian rivers, is best spotted in the winter months, we learnt. The breeding programme is spearheaded by the Assam (Bhorelli) Angling and Conservation Association that also runs the eco-camp in the reserve. It was ironic that the angling association that is run in such close cooperation with the locals is still called Bhorelli!

The river front was the perfect picnic spot and it was arduous to get ourselves out of that blissful state of being. But we were eager to learn more about the eco-camp located in the Potasali village nearby, which also happens to be the only place to stay anywhere close to Nameri National Park. It was a delightful place to be in, located in a quiet village at the border of the park, not too far from the river. We had lunch at the camp, which was a simple fare using local produce. The local community takes great pride in participating in the activities of the camp, and the acknowledgement of the role local communities play in keeping the ecosystem of the place alive was displayed for all to see.

With an area of 213 sq. km., Nameri is the third largest national Park of Assam. Nameri was set up as a sanctuary in 1985 and in 1998 it was officially established as a national park. By the time we finished our lunch and spent some time relaxing outside the tents taking in the sights and smells, a heavy downpour decided for us that it was time to leave and we had to choose another day to explore the reserve.

As we pulled out our jeeps from the eco-camp, the words in the display board at the camp’s restaurant that captured the essence of how beautifully one could live in harmony with nature and of the usually unsung local community in preserving the delicate ecosystem, was all that played in my head –

Lobjek, my dear friend, this is about you, the “bushman of the Bhorelli”. Your forte was not restricted to the river but went beyond. A vanishing handful of your tribe, you not just gave us joy and excitement but taught us so much about ourselves. In return, all you wanted was to sit around a log fire with a glass of lom (rum) and exchange stories of the day gone by! Your footprints on the sand may have gone with you, but not the impressions you have left in our hearts and souls. For as long as the breeze blows and creates a rustle in the trees and a ripple on the river, a Mahaseer leaps. You live. You are Nature.

Yoginder Sikand takes you on a daring trip to a remote part of the remote state of Arunachal Pradesh. It is not for the faint-hearted or the luxury-seeker. You will not be observing exotic wildlife or grandiose architecture. But if you are a daring adventurer who can rough it, want to experience a unique sense of oneness with nature and have a deep love for primitive cultures and tribal traditions, you will not find a more perfect place than this!

It is definitely way off the conventional tourist map. Located in the far eastern corner of Arunachal Pradesh, in the Changlang border, near the trisection of India, Burma and Tibet, Diyun is a large village, the major market-place for dozens of tribal hamlets in the vicinity. That is where I spent two months earlier this year, volunteering as a teacher in a school.

Diyun boasts almost nothing of conventional tourist interest. Till recently, almost the entire area, stretching from near the border with Assam till the towering mountains of the Patkai Bum range of the eastern Himalayas that straddle the Burma border, was under dense forest cover. Only a few tribal families lived in the area, in scattered bamboo huts, engaging in fishing, hunting and jhoom—or shifting cultivation. Then, in the 1960s, the area was completely transformed, when thousands of refugees from the Chakma and Hajong tribes, who lived in what was then East Pakistan and is now Bangladesh, fled religious persecution and were settled here by the government. Today, the vast majority of the inhabitants of the ‘Diyun Circle’, as it is called, are Chakmas and Hajongs—who are mostly impoverished small cultivators, fisher folk and craftsmen. In addition to them are small pockets of other, more powerful and prosperous tribes, including the Mishmis, Nagas, Mossangs, Singphos and Khamtis.

Because the ‘Diyun Circle’ doesn’t have a long history, it does not have any historical monuments that might attract travelers. It did boast, several decades ago, of dense forests, which abounded with wildlife. Today, however, only small patches of forest remain in the plains, and even in the mountains large stretches of forest have been indiscriminately felled to make way for fields. Selling timber is lucrative business for some, while for others it is a means for sheer survival. Rampant deforestation around Diyun (and, indeed, all over Arunachal Pradesh, which once boasted of being one of the most densely-forested states in India) has meant that there are hardly any wild animals left in the area. Some decades ago, elephants, bears, leopards and tigers were common around Diyun, but with their natural habitat destroyed and large-scale poaching it is rare to spot even the state bird of Arunachal Pradesh – the hornbill – in the area. The only wildlife that I got to see were a couple of giant spiders, a bison, snake and the common white stork.

Since there is hardly any wildlife left and no major monuments in the area, it is hardly surprising that few visitors ever pass through Diyun. But for the traveler with an interest in tribal culture, Diyun – and, I suppose, other parts of Arunachal Pradesh, too – is a fascinating place. For the more anthropologically-inclined traveler, for whom travel is not simply about gazing at grand centuries-old palaces and forts but is also a means to witness and understand the living cultures of ‘ordinary’ folk, some days in and around Diyun is sure to be an immensely rewarding experience—as indeed it was for me.

Almost every afternoon, over the two months that I was in Diyun, I would walk or cycle through the neighbouring hamlets to witness a way of life that is fast disappearing in the face of the relentless march of ‘modernity’. It was not at all easy traversing through slush-filled pathways or fording streams on foot or finding my way in the jungle, but that was the only way to do it – there are hardly any paved roads in the area and only an occasional bus that connects a few hamlets. Hardly anyone owns a vehicle here and so the only sound one is likely to hear while winding one’s way from one hamlet to the next is that of the wind blowing through clumps of bamboos, of birds chirping in the trees, of frogs croaking in the ponds, and of village kids having fun in the fields.

You could spend hours in and around Diyun, as I did, paddling through brooks, watching men smoking pipes made of long shafts of bamboo, women working in the paddy fields and ducks floating in little pools. You could hike to the banks of the enormous Dihing river to see the sun set over the mountains and watch tribal people lay fish traps made of bamboo poles or hunt for insects under the boulders scattered on the river banks. You could observe village youth assemble a hut, with just a couple of bamboos for the frame, straw mats for the walls, wooden poles for the stilts, dried leaves for the roof, and a log of wood with broad slits in the middle for stairs. You could watch old men make delicate cane containers to be used for worship, baskets, cradles and hand-fans. You could witness young women working at their looms, creating exquisite, brightly-hued sarongs and towels. You could join a group of women (it is almost always women, and, particularly, elderly women) walking several miles in search of a stream to fish in, balancing giant bamboo-made fishing baskets on their heads. And not to be missed is the amazing bi-weekly street market, where different tribes, dressed mostly in their traditional brightly-hued costumes, buy and sell local produce – grains and vegetables, hand-woven dresses, and fruits from the jungle which you won’t be able to recognize.

Most of the ethnic groups in this area claim to be Buddhists. You could chat with a friendly monk, or simply squat doing nothing – which is what some forms of meditation are all about – in a Buddhist monastery. Almost every village here has a Buddhist temple, and most of these are built in the distinctive Burmese pagoda style. You could even trek into the jungle to spend some time with ‘forest monks’, who live all alone in whatever is left of the forest, meditating through much of the day and coming down to the villages only in the mornings to beg for food. On every full-moon and new-moon day, villagers flock to the monasteries to listen to discourses by the resident monks. You won’t understand a word of it all, of course, but it is an experience not to be missed. You might even be able to attend a Kathin Chivar Dan Puja, when hundreds of women from the Chakma tribe gather in the Buddhist temples to weave robes to offer to the monks.

If you are fortunate, as I was on numerous occasions, you might be invited to people’s homes for a meal or a cup of tea, and then you could end up spending hours chatting with your hosts to learn about what life is like for people living in one of the most remote parts of a state which itself is one of the most remote in India. You would learn that the Chakmas and Hajongs, who form the majority in this area and are among the poorest communities in the state, continue to suffer neglect from the authorities, their villages having almost no state-sponsored development schemes. Hardly any of them are employed by the state government. You would learn how ‘development’ and ‘modern education’ have come as a mixed blessing for the tribals, bringing material comforts for some, but at the cost of the rapid destruction of local traditions. You would be shocked to learn about the pervasive and deep-rooted problem of drug addiction in the area and about the immensely deleterious impact of television in the area, with Bollywood heroes replacing tribal elders as models for the youth to emulate.

If you feel you’ve had enough of Diyun, you could consider cycling – as I did – some 20 kilometres to the nearby town of Miao, crossing an enormous river, which comes roaring down the Himalayas. There is no bridge here, and so you will have to walk half the way on foot, in almost knee-deep, emerald-blue water, and then cover the rest of the distance in a country boat. There is not much to see in Miao, but there is a small Tibetan refugee settlement that you might find interesting. The town’s other supposed tourist attraction, a little zoo, is in a complete shambles – the assortment of Himalayan bears, porcupines, snakes, slow lorises and monkeys that it boasts of are trapped in miserable little concrete prison – like enclosures that are bereft of any greenery or mud. But the journey to Miao, which takes you through stretches of forest, through Chakma, Naga and Singpho villages, and past several little Buddhist temples, is itself well-worth it.

You might like to make a short trip to the Namdapha National Park, which can be approached by road from Miao. Spread over some 2000 square kilometres, it is the largest protected area in the eastern Himalayas. Its habitat ranges from sub-tropical evergreen forests to alpine meadows and perennial snow-capped peaks, and it still boasts, despite illegal poaching in the vicinity, of considerable wildlife. You could also consider a hurried trip in a truck to the Hindu pilgrimage centre at Parasuram Kund, near the Tibetan border, beyond the town of Wakro, home of the Mishmi tribe. The road passes through lush green fields and then dense forests, interspersed with orange plantations, till it reaches the mighty Brahmaputra, which comes noisily tumbling down the mountains.

As elsewhere in much of Arunachal Pradesh, there are hardly any facilities for tourists in and around Diyun. It isn’t safe, too, especially after dark, with reports of extortions and kidnappings. And, then, there is the additional problem of underground groups which are active in the area. But for those with a bit of daring, it promises to be – as it was for me – a richly rewarding learning experience.