Mithun encounters at Mishmi. Day 3

Look like gaur and behave like cattle. Mithun are a sign of prestige and wealth and owned by families here. They are given by the groom in marriage to the bride's family.

A status symbol. Rather endearing looking, and product huge gignormous pile of poop.

Mishmi Day 3 - guess who came to dinner

These cicadas called through the day - a ringing temple bell like call, which I am unable to upload here.

Green cicada which calls through the day in the forests here. Landed on our dinner table. Seemed to want the tomato soup.

It proabably got startled at its reflection in the water glass and buzzed off!

Oh and the soup was good. As was the local keerai side dish. Had a lemon grass flavour. Mild and delicate. Sekar was aghast at how I could possibly enjoy it.

Day 2 Mishmi river crossings.

The sun was up and so was I by 430. It was a bit cooler in the morning. I had tried to organise our back packs last night before going to bed.

Sandals or shoes
Last night's confusion
Which one to choose
With leech socks,
Inside- A definite inclusion.

I chose shoes
And didn't regret it.
No rocky blues
No bites
Despite the tight fit.

The plan was to drive to Chidu camp where we were to meet Jibi Pulu the Mishmi elder. The four of us and our driver Shamim followed the entourage of cars. What a beautiful sunrise over the hills I saw!

And as we wound our way around the hill, the views of the Dibang Valley were beautiful. Grass flowers on the river bed, clear blue water streams, rounded river stones.

We pass the Cow Point, a point on the road where a huge bunch of cattle spend the nights. We move off the main road and then our innovas handled the road bravely and with Josh. 😄 cars started stopping to photograph wildflowers and roadside 'weeds' and ofcourse we straggled and then we reached a flowing river. No car in sight and no car in sight either. 😂 our driver Shamim looked bemused and got down, and then realised that he was busy taking selfie pictures in this scenic spot. We all got down and also took our pictures. I picked up a small stone for Sagarika, and we loitered. Arjun suddenly got Signal and then a call to Pritam who told us like yeah you have to come through the river, simple.

So we did, with a nervous Shamim, and then there was sudden tar road of good quality. One more river, and here there was a bridge which was half done! So we had to go down on to he river bed again!

We reached Jibi Palu's CCA camp at Chidu. I had heard and read so much about him. A Mishmi elder who has come back and got his community together to protect and preserve. Seeing him with shorts and a lovely smile it was nice to see him and his team.

MNS style breakfast- puris were yummy and a large pig reminiscent of Empress of Blandings was snuffling through a bowl of some gruel.

More soon.

Prepping with limericks

Sept 29th.

Tomorrow Mishmi beckons. My friends are as excited as me it seems.

Umesh limericked about the prepping.

Me
Her brains she was racking
Kept thinking, "I should be packing...
Should I take one bag or two?
Should I take sandal or shoe?"
And kept doing this till the plane was tarmac-ing!

G3 was in her room
Getting onto her broom
As she was about to fly
She waved Goodbye
And said "Naanga poyittu varoom"

Harness or strap
I was in a flap
Umesh suggested
Srinivas be requested
And that I agree, needs a clap.

DQ asked a question: Harness or Strap?
G3 said: Forget it, all crap!
Then KJo came on the scene
And said: Just make sure it's Green
And OC replied: Packing already done, it's a wrap!

Putting these here to remind me of the confusions. Vijay says bring fleece jacket, monkey caps and wooden socks. Prong temperature says 22deg C at night. 😮‍💨

15kgs baggage what to take what to leave?

30th sept

215am alarm!
Leave home by 3, pick up Usha along the way.
What a relief bags are within the weight.

Flights are on time and we make the connections and our bags make it to Dibrugarh, yay!

Lunch at NH37. It's HOT!!

Today is the day of rivers. Hooghly o the way to Kolkata, then the mighty Brahmaputra from the air, and then the glorious Lohit from the bridge.

Vultures in the air, more than 25, circling and landing as if at an airport! Amazing sight.

Chai stop, cattle obstacles a plenty and we cross into Arunachal and the whole scenery changes. Lush and green and the Mishmi hills ahead.

Cross Roing and teach Yatri Niwas and it's close to 4. We wander around, see tree sparrows, the Himalayan bulbuls, grass and blu skies.

Dinner at help Tourism camp is 20 minutes away. Moths!!! The moth screen brought some amazing specimens. And the Milky Way! Jupiter's moon, and the Panchami moon. Crickets calling. Quite magical.

So many things I learnt today. About Assam having a native tea species, and about Chabua being where the first bush was planted by the British.

The folly of the Etalin Hydroelectric project

Pages from the latest Hornbill on the proposal to build a dam in Dibang Valley and its possible impact on biodiversity.  The sadness and madness of it all - it just boggles the mind.

Voices from Dibang Valley: Idu Mishmi, wildlife biologists and a Wildlife Sanctuary

May 29, 2020

The news of tiger research in Dibang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh ‘Tiger in the snow’ and the research article in Journal of Threatened Taxa (November 26, 2018) created a buzz among the wildlife conservationists but projected only a partial story. The story of a charismatic species, ‘new discovery’ of a species, news about undocumented landscapes and the use of high technology in studying wildlife make a happy story of wildlife conservation. The ‘human-story’ in wildlife research and conservation is emerging but the voices of the local communities who are affected by wildlife conservation are often not discussed.

Idu Mishmi and the tiger

For the local Idu Mishmi tribe of Dibang Valley, the “discovery” of tigers is not new. They not only share the mountainous border landscape with tigers but every Idu Mishmi proudly narrates the mythological story of Mishmi and tiger as a kin. For members of this tribe, killing tigers is a sin. If a tiger is killed for self-protection or is trapped accidentally, a senior shaman is invited to carry out a ritual, which involves a huge expenditure, equivalent to a funeral for a human being. The Mishmi assert that they are also conservationists and that their role must be acknowledged in the field.

There has been a great reluctance to accept the views of the locals by wildlife biologists. In 2006, a wildlife researcher even disregarded the presence of large carnivores at such a high altitude. In 2013, the Wildlife Trust of India carried out a rescue of two tiger cubs from Angrim Valley, close to the Sino-India border. This changed everything. Since then Dibang Valley has become an active site for wildlife studies and conservation, largely focused on tigers. Geographic Information System experts from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Delhi) visited to map the sanctuary. The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) carried out a study to document tiger presence, its habitat, and its prey. The news about Dibang tigers is a result of this new interest in the region. Most of this research has a clear idea about what needs to be done for tigers’ survival but not on what the local Idu Mishmi want. This biased approach towards the ‘non-human’ world of wildlife research is very obvious but it is extremely disturbing not to consider the views of the local people.

Recommendations from these visits have led to a proposal suggesting a reconstitution of the existing Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary (DWLS) as the Dibang Tiger Reserve. Local residents have mixed responses to this development. The villagers living close to the sanctuary were anxious about what will happen if a tiger reserve is established. Many even welcomed the possibility of a tiger reserve with the hope that there will be some employment. The Idu Mishmi Cultural Literary Society (IMCLS) wrote a letter to the National Tiger Conservation Authority stating that the right strategy for conserving Dibang tigers would be to create a new kind of tiger reserve based on a ‘cultural’ model. Any new model needs to be debated but taking the local people into confidence is always a better approach.

Steps taken towards conserving wildlife should be done in consultation with the local residents, unlike how the DWLS was established in 1998. One of the villagers said, “What has happened in the past is that the government has taken a lot of our land without our consent”. During my research, local community members hardly had a clue about how the wildlife sanctuary was established. It was only when a 2013 letter requesting land for the Eco-Sensitive Zone arrived that the residents knew that there was a wildlife sanctuary in their district.

Research activities in the last four to five years have scaled up, and there is worry and anxiety among the local residents, which sometimes ends up creating unpleasant situations. A wildlife researcher was stopped from carrying out a camera-trap exercise, and the mapping team from WWF-Delhi had to go through some tough questioning before they could start their work. One of the residents was candid; They said, “If they write in their report that there are tigers, then our forests will be under the jurisdiction of the tiger reserve, and the forest department may take away our land.” Another resident was in support of a tiger reserve under the hope of “development”.

These voices of resistance or anxieties by the Idu Mishmis were ignored and left unaddressed till 2019 when a high-level meeting with the forest department and NTCA (National Tiger Conservation Agency) agreed to carry out mapping exercises of the border.

Sociological ‘tokenism’

There are valid reasons why the ‘social’ is often not included in research and conservation initiatives, such as the one in Dibang Valley. The views of enthusiasts and wildlife experts were heard ‘loud and clear’ as the Dibang tiger news flashed all over the media but not the views of local Idu Mishmi. Researchers often do not consider issues outside the preview of wildlife research, particularly when they are fixated on one particular species. In this case, it was a ‘tigers-only’ policy. This form of separation and disintegration of the species from its anthropological and social meaning, according to Paige West is ‘ecofetish’. This ecofetishism blinds the viewer to the social implications and creates what Ulrich Beck calls ‘sociological emptiness’. In the Dibang case, I would call it ‘sociological tokenism’. The wildlife reports from Dibang did carry some information about Idu Mishmi, but not their views or opinions as highlighted earlier. A complete silence by the wildlife researchers about the socio-political issues is unjust.

Pedagogical challenges

Wildlife researchers are often not trained to carry out social surveys and sometimes do not take interest in the local social issues. Scientists trained in wildlife sciences also implement conservation projects, where aspects of biological sciences dominate.These are shaped by scientific knowledge that contain little to no insight from the social history of the landscapes. Therefore, when wildlife scientists design projects, there is often a lack of people’s perspectives, and less priority is given to the needs of the local people. A senior wildlife biologist confessed that for a long time, the word ‘communities’ for him meant ‘bird communities’, ‘forest communities’ and only much later, he realised that the word also included ‘humans’.

What is heartening is that Idu Mishmi are not against a wildlife sanctuary, but they are demanding the reduction of the area and questioning why there is a need for such a huge land mass. These sentiments have the potential to usher a new era of community centric conservation. This may provide a new direction and a great opportunity to truly integrate community voices in tiger conservation.

Finally, the credit for the mega claims made by wildlife biologists of tigers’ presence must go partially to the local Idu Mishmi’s socio-cultural ethos and also to the formidable landscape of these sparsely populated borderlands, which are largely uninhabitable and unfit for agriculture. Such landscapes are de facto natural reserves, and because of their remoteness and local indigenous conservation practices, places such as Dibang Valley are a safe haven for biodiversity. It would be a mistake to assume that new scientific knowledge of wildlife in local people’s conservation ethos could save wildlife. Large dams, better road and market connectivity to these borderlands could prove more damaging. Meanwhile, the multiple voices from the ground need to be acknowledged. Local communities must be given due credibility instead of their voices being drowned in the loud celebratory claims about tigers being made by wildlife scientists.

Idu Mishmi, tigers and the magnificent Dibang Valley

Hoping to meet the author of this essay - Sahil Nijhawan - when we visit next month... 17 Hydel projects?! 

Tribal Tigers

First published in Sanctuary Asia, Vol. 39 No. 4, April 2019

By Sahil Nijhawan

The Prelude

It was March 2012. I was in the Lower Dibang Valley district of Arunachal Pradesh conducting surveys for a renowned conservation organisation to determine tiger presence outside Protected Areas of Northeast India. “If you want to find a lot of tigers, you must go high up in the mountains. In our culture, tigers live on tall mountains," said an Idu Mishmi elder as I sat in his hut close to Roing town, the headquarters of the Lower Dibang Valley. I nodded, as you do when dismissing someone, politely. I was well versed in tiger ecology and knew that ‘a lot of tigers' didn't, and couldn't, ‘live on high mountains'. During my years in graduate school and then as a conservation practitioner, I had firmly believed, backed by hard data, that tigers were a conservation dependent species that survived when governments and NGOs, like the one I worked for, put in active measures to protect them. There were no tiger reserves in the area, no guards and the nearest sizeable tiger population was more than 400 km. away in Assam's Kaziranga. Surely the ‘tigers' that the Idu elder was talking about were either fictional or unfortunate remnants of a past population.

A few months later news arrived that two tiger cubs had been rescued from a dry well in a village close to Anini about 250 km. north of Roing towards the international border with Tibet. In December that year, with my local mentor, Jibi Pulu (whom I lovingly call Naba Jibi, Naba means father in Idu language), an exceptionally charming and eloquent English-speaking middle-aged Idu man, I spent 10 days asking numerous villagers about tigers. Most reported having seen the animal or its signs. We found tiger pugmarks from river valleys at 1,800 m. up to steep mountain slopes at 2,700 m. - ‘high up in the mountains - just like the Idu elder had suggested months ago. How many tigers lived in the rugged temperate forests of these frontier villages? More importantly, why were these tigers even there? Who was protecting them? Dibang Valley lies next to China, arguably the largest consumer of tiger parts, and it is widely-known that tigers exist in very low numbers in designated tiger reserves in the Northeast like Namdapha, Kamlang and Dampa. My incredulity was met with an even more curious response by Naba Jibi, “In our culture, tigers and Idus are brothers. We cannot kill them."  Was it simply a folktale or had the Idu culture protected the world's largest and most threatened feline? I knew I had to return.

The author (right) tied his study of tiger ecology with anthropology to understand the local socio-economic situation, forest use, and people's perceptions around tigers. He lived among the Idu families and worked closely with them. Photo: Ambika Aiyadurai.

The Methods

A year later, I was back in Dibang Valley armed with 100 automatic camera traps, a white Tata Sumo and some heavy-duty tents (which later became redundant as we began sleeping in caves and bamboo shelters much like generations of Idus before us). The tigers and the relevance of Idu-tiger ‘brotherhood' for their conservation were now the focus of my Ph.D. research. However, there was a major problem. There was no prior systematic large-scale study of wildlife or Idu culture in Dibang Valley - no baselines whatsoever! I tightened my belt and over the next two years (2013-15), combined ecology and anthropology to understand the Idu-tiger nexus. To study tigers and their prey, I deployed camera traps in nearly 220 locations and collected fecal samples. My local guides (usually the customary owners of their respective forests) and I would spend the day placing cameras; while in the evenings, as we huddled around the fire to keep warm, I tried to learn the Idu language - 20 new words a day. My repeated inability to correctly pronounce Idu tones made me the butt of everyone's jokes. I lived with Idu families, participated in local festivals, and helped with domestic and farm chores in order to understand daily interactions with nature. I spent time with Idu shamans (priests) to learn Idu mythology, customs and belief system. Over time, as I became conversant in Idu, I conducted hundreds of interviews to understand the local socio-economic situation, patterns of forest use and ideas around tigers.

Iho Mitapo, a dynamic, young Idu Mishmi whose support was indispensable in the field. His commendable commitment towards defending the biodiversity of the Dibang Valley earned him the Sanctuary Young Naturalist Award 2018. Photo: Sahil Nijhawan.

The Idu Mishmi

Idu Mishmis are one of the 26 recognised indigenous communities of Arunachal Pradesh and Dibang Valley is their ancestral homeland. Dibang Valley is an unending expanse of dense green mountains broken only sporadically by snow-covered peaks dotted throughout its enormous geography. In Arunachal Pradesh, unlike the rest of the country, land and forests are under the de facto ownership of local people while the Forest Department controls a meagre percentage of land. Each Idu village has exclusive rights over its mountains and forests. Within the village land, each family has its own forest land while some of it is communally owned. Ownership rules are strictly enforced and without the owners permission, Idus do not go into forests that are not theirs. Idus are predominantly animists. Traditional animists believe that non-humans such as animals and spirits have the same capacities of conscious decision-making as humans do. The world of the animists is full of good and bad spirits. To survive and prosper, one must ensure that these spirits are appeased with the help of a shaman who is the only one able to communicate with spirit and animal worlds. In the very north of the district, along the Tibetan border, lies Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary (DWLS), which is eight times as big as Corbett National Park but has fewer than 10 Forest Department staff. There are plans to tap the rivers of Dibang Valley in nearly 17 hydropower dams, a few of which would be amongst the largest dams in India.

The Idu Mishmi tribe's poignant cultural practices and beliefs have ensured the survival of the tiger and its habitat in the Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh. Photo: Sahil Nijhawan/Panthera/APFDPhoto: Sahil Nijhawan/Panthera/APFD

The Tigers

I placed camera traps from tropical forests around 500 m. all the way to alpine meadows at 3,700 m. in altitude. About half of these were stationed in two valleys inside DWLS while the rest were in Idu-owned forests. The cameras captured an astounding diversity of animal life - 30 different species of mammals including clouded leopards, wild dogs, red pandas, golden cats and seven species of pheasants! Many more species were encountered in community forests than in DWLS. Twelve individual tigers were photo-captured - eight adults, two sub-adults around one-year-old, and two young cubs (under three months). An astounding eight of these tigers (six adults and two sub-adults) were found living in Idu-owned forests. Surprisingly, cameras captured no photographs of tigers in one of the valleys inside DWLS. I had only begun to scratch the surface as my cameras covered less than 10 per cent of Dibang Valleys forested mountains. Advanced statistical analyses indicated that there could be as many as 50 adult tigers in Dibang, up to 90 percent of which would live in Idu-owned forests. Unlike in the rest of their range, these tigers relied on a unique prey assemblage with two species of muntjac (Indian and Gongshan) making up most of their diet followed by mithun (a semi-domesticated form of gaur owned by the Idu), Himalayan serow and the Mishmi takin- a bizarre furry wildebeest-like mountain goat endemic to the eastern Himalaya.

They say tigers are the pulse of the forest - if tigers do well everything else does well too. Yet, I was curious to know how the tiger prey was faring. I used a novel method based on gas collision theory (developed by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1860) to count the tiger's prey animals using camera traps. Results confirmed that Dibang Valley had just as many muntjac and wild pigs as other strictly protected tiger reserves. Dibang Valley indeed acted like a ‘well-guarded tiger reserve, except that there were no forest guards, systematic patrols, government funding, Tiger Conservation Plans, eco-resorts or tiger-tourists. The tiger, its prey and its habitat were protected in Dibang Valley by Idu culture, which in turn has been safeguarded by Arunachal's Inner Line Permit, a legal instrument that prohibits the influx of non-locals.

Photo: Sahil Nijhawan.

The Brotherhood

While the outside world may have just ‘discovered' tigers in Dibang Valley, the Idu Mishmi have for centuries known of and lived with tigers. That Idu and tigers are brothers is an ‘indisputable fact every adult Idu knows without fail. Idu children grow up on the story of ancestral brothers born to the same mother - the first Idu, from whom all Idus descend, and the tiger. A disagreement resulted in man conspiring to kill his brother. The creators rebirthed the tiger and sent it to the ‘tall mountains, away from his brothers villages, where it lives to this day. But the wilfull killing of the tiger by his own brother, an act of murder that spilled the blood of one's own kin, unleashed the misfortunes and diseases that still haunt the Idu. The two live separate lives however, the tiger does occasionally descend into his human brothers' villages in the lower mountains to steal his prized cattle, mithun, creating tense confrontational situations. Tiger killing of mithun is not mere livestock depredation; it is a re-enactment of the ancestral myth that intertwines man and tiger. Livestock depredation may be seen as a sign of conflict everywhere else in India, but for the Idu, it is a complicated matter. Despite the financial, emotional, spiritual and psychological stress, Idu beliefs concerning tigers prevent widespread and immediate retaliatory killing - elsewhere, a significant cause of tiger deaths.

For the Idu, the tiger has many meanings. It is an animal that lives in the forest, is feared, and kills mithun and it is the mythical brother who must not be killed, yet again. The Idu shaman is believed to have a tiger spirit that heals people. It is the shaman (along with his spirit-tiger) who brings children into the world and makes them ‘Idu', and lays the dead to rest. Even though Idus are increasingly linked to the outside world through western education and globalisation, shamans still hold a key position in the society. The Idu need the shaman, the shaman in turn depends on the tiger. Whilst the Idu fear the tiger and do not ever want to confront one, it forms an integral part of their identity.

Photo:  John Goodrich.

The Interconnected Futures

The Idu-tiger nexus is an example of a socio-ecological system where the two are co-dependent; their history, ecology, culture and destinies intertwined. The story of either one is incomplete without the other. It was therefore a severe shock to me as well as to the Idu Mishmis, when the Wildlife Institute of India's (WII) recent publication on Dibang's tigers made no mention of the Idu-tiger relationship or Idu Mishmis in any meaningful way. What makes these tigers truly unique isn't just that they are such formidable mountaineers, but the very reason for their existence in Dibang Valley - the Idu Mishmis themselves! Most Idus I spoke with were well aware of the value of tiger parts in illegal markets, but they would not kill tigers for the fear that it might invoke the ancestral curse of death and destruction. But for this cultural link, tigers in Dibang Valley would have long met the same fate as those in Sariska, Panna, and several reserves in the Northeast where organised poaching gangs took advantage of people's antagonism towards the Forest Department, not the forest or tigers.

Against this backdrop, the Idu-tiger story is a cause for celebration. It raises immense hope and urges us to look beyond one-size-fits-all models for saving tigers in a country as diverse as ours. It challenges our existing ideas of human-wildlife ‘conflict, who is best positioned to ‘protect tigers and where. Generations of wildlife researchers and practitioners have been trained in simplistic, yet flawed, ideologies that most find it difficult to conceive of endangered wildlife, particularly tigers, existing outside national park boundaries (I, for one, held similar views at the onset of this research). WII scientists headed directly for DWLS to place camera traps based on the unchallenged belief that it would be the best area for tigers, disregarding the obvious existence of the unbroken expanse of forest all around DWLS, because those forests were ‘unprotected. Yet, their own study found India's highest tigers in community-owned forests, not in the ‘protected sanctuary.

Conflicting Science, Conflicting Stories

In November 2018, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) published results of a camera trapping study of tigers, which concluded that the Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary held the highest-living tigers in India. In response to reports that the sanctuary might be declared a tiger reserve based on the study's findings, the Idu Mishmi Cultural and Literary Society (IMCLS), the premier group representing interests of the Idu people, wrote a letter to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Chief Conservator of Forests, Arunachal Pradesh. In the letter, they asserted that WII's publication and the ensuing media reports only tell half the story and that too, with some vital omissions and misrepresentations. The letter argued that the publication:

1) leaves out the fact that photo-captures of tigers at higher altitudes of 3,246 and 3,630 m. occurred outside the sanctuary and in community-owned forests.

2) makes no mention of how many tigers were photographed inside vs. outside the sanctuary.

The letter, quoting Dr. Sahil Nijhawan's research, explained that nearly 65 per cent of Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary is above 3,500 m., which is the tree line in the region. Even though tigers may sometimes venture close to 4,000 m., these high elevations are unlikely to host tigers, or their primary prey, permanently. The tigers' most important wild prey in Dibang Valley - muntjac and serow - typically do not range above 3,000 m., while its domestic prey, mithun, is not found inside the sanctuary. Their largest wild prey, Mishmi takin, migrate seasonally spending nearly half the year in the higher mountains and the rest in lower elevations. Male tigers are known to travel long distances and, occasionally, to higher elevations in pursuit of takin. Females, however, particularly those with cubs, hold steady prey-rich home ranges in lower-mid elevation forests (1,500-2,500 m.), majority of which are community-owned. The male tigers that WIIs researchers photo-trapped at the 3,630 m. and 3,246 m. depend inextricably on the forests in lower hills owned by the Idu Mishmi. Notwithstanding its large size, Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary's highland geography makes it insufficient to hold enough tigers on its own to sustain a viable population.

The letter continues, “we believe that just because tigers are ‘discovered in a place, does not mean it must be declared a tiger reserve without understanding how and why those tigers have survived. We strongly believe that the right strategy for Dibang tigers would be to develop a new kind of tiger reserve that is built not with fences and armed patrol guards, but around a cultural model, a culture which has so far proven to be effective in saving the tiger. We have a real opportunity here to set the stage for a new tiger conservation paradigm; one that is grounded in the Indian constitutions mandate for Arunachal Pradesh - local tribal autonomy and sovereignty - and is based upon strengthening local cultural values." They demanded that the NTCA and state government must work with the Idu Mishmi in order to develop locally relevant measures to ensure that tigers continue to thrive in Dibang Valley. The letter concludes by highlighting the dangers of basing policy on incomplete and half-truths, “such a policy may either fail to deliver its intended results, or, as experiences from other parts of the country suggest, can be potentially destructive to the tigers it aims to protect."

If and when DWLS is declared a tiger reserve, it will surely exclude Idus from their ancestral land, but it is unlikely to keep the tigers in, or from occasionally preying upon mithun. However, instead of Idu culture and shamans mediating temporary episodes of conflict between people and tigers, the Forest Department will be held responsible. This will, at best, convert the Idu-tiger relationship into a monetary transaction via ill-designed compensation programmes. At worst, it will create a situation of perpetual enmity between Idu and the tiger which the culture is no longer able to encompass and explain. How long can the ‘Idu tiger' survive when it officially becomes the ‘Indian tiger' remains to be seen. So far, the tigers have thrived without outside intervention. Sometimes, the best thing is to not meddle.

(First published in: April 2019)

Arunachal tales

Roing, Mishmi, Dibang Valley....all exotic names for me so far.  Awaiting our MNS trip to these places next month.  Thanks to Yuvan for sharing this intro. 

How environmentalist Jibi Pulu is using ecotourism to turn Mishmi tribe conservationists

November 8, 2017

About 15 years back, working as a travel agent in Delhi, Jibi Pulu would ferry eager tourists to picturesque Arunachal Pradesh set amid the lofty Eastern Himalayas with rich and varied flora and fauna. But the mindless destruction of the ecology prompted him to return to his roots to save the environment. Today, his conservation efforts have transformed the local community from exploiters of natural resources to protectors of Mother Nature.

Jibi’s endeavours have resulted in the establishment of a community conserved area (CCA) covering two villages of 90 households of the Idu-Mishmi tribe in Lower Dibang district of east Arunachal.

Jibi says while there are community conserve areas in Arunachal, they are all in the western part. The conserve area set-up by Jibi is the first in the eastern part of the state and is the first grassland CCA in the country.

About 26 major tribes and 100 sub-tribes reside in the state. Among the main tribes are Adi, Nyshi, Mishmi, Singpho, Galo, Tagin and Apatani. The Mishmi tribe has three sub-tribes, namely Idu-Mishmi, Digaru-Mishmi and Miju-Mishmi.

Jibi, who himself is an Idu-Mishmi, says he was often vexed with the thought of how to mesh conservation with economic opportunity.

“It’s easy to talk of conservation. But it’s not possible to wean a person away from exploiting natural resources or hunting down animals unless you can provide an economically-viable alternative,” he says.

Jibi believes that development brings its own hazards such as the exploitation of resources, unregulated growth and construction and cheating of locals.

Being from the travel trade, Jibi worked on linking tourism to conservation so that the locals could earn a sustainable livelihood.

A member of the Idu-Mishmi tribe that has been living in harmony with nature for centuries. Pic: Flickr

Over years of study and interaction with other environmentalists, he zeroed in on the eco-tourism model that was a win-win for the community as well as the environment. “For centuries, the indigenous people have been living in harmony with nature. In our culture, we do hunt but for our sustenance and we do not sell meat,” he says.

However, with western education and a modern lifestyle, people moved away from their cultural roots. “They began to hunt for commercial purposes and poaching of animals became quite common. Felling of trees was also widespread,” he says. This provoked him to begin his conservation drive.

His idea is to promote voluntourism and research tourism along with other activities that will make the local community stakeholders in its development.

Voluntourism will involve volunteers from all over the world visiting Arunachal and living and working with the community and paying for the experience.

Research tourism will involve students from schools and universities visiting the area and learning about the flora and fauna, and conservation efforts.

From exploiters to protectors

The concept of a community conserved area is not new in Arunachal. There are nine community conserved areas in the state that have been declared over the past 15 years, covering about 1500 sq km of forests. The concept of a community conserved area is found in the provisions of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.

Jibi Pulu has helped the local community go back to its culture which is about living in harmony with nature. Pic: Flickr

It is a protected region in which the flora, fauna and culture and traditions of the local community are preserved.

The community conserved area gives the local community custodianship and user rights over the area’s natural resources.

The local community gets direct livelihood benefits from activities such as tourism, operating homestays, promoting local art, culture, handicrafts and cuisine, treks and nature trails. The reserve is managed by a Community Reserve Management Committee with representatives of the local community.

After his return to Roing in 2008, Jibi started meeting with his tribe people and holding interactions with the young and old, men and women and reasoning with them to turn their area into a protected area for preserving the ecology of the region.

Volunteers from Mishmi tribe work with Jibi for environment protection. Pic: Facebook/@Jibi-Pulu

The community had many doubts, especially regarding how they would earn their livelihood. Most people in the area do subsistence agriculture and contractual jobs for the government.

To convince them, Jibi took a few young men and community elders to Kaziranga to show them how the conservation model would work.

He even sent one of his brothers to study a conservation model in Malaysia so the good practices could be adopted here. Eventually, the community agreed to his exhortations and gave their consent.

In the traditional culture of the Mishmis, nature is part of divinity.

“We revere animals and forests. There is no group hunting and there are prescribed codes for hunting that are laid down by the Shaman (priest),” he says.

Even after hunting, the meat cannot be sold. It is to be shared with the clan. “I am trying to revive our traditional knowledge and wisdom and encourage people to adopt the old, eco-friendly way of living,” he says.

Creating a community of conservationists

In his work, Jibi has associated with several other organisations that are working in Arunachal on environment protection.

Jibi has several volunteers and researchers from all parts of India and even abroad who work under his guidance.

The researchers conduct a count of wildlife in the Lower Dibang area and document the flora and fauna which is an important part of the conservation effort. The researchers are paid by the NGOs with whom they are associated.

White browed gibbon is among the endangered species found in Mishmi Hills. Pic: Wikipedia

The volunteers are local boys from the Mishmi tribe who are working under the field biologists and researchers in their documentation work. They help in collecting data, monitoring the area and go for patrolling, setting up camera traps that captures photos of the animals.

Jibi’s efforts on the ground won him the gold medal at the Indian responsible tourism awards 2020. However, Jibi did not go to receive the award.

His logic is simple. “I am not doing this to earn a livelihood. This is my passion. I am doing this because I care for the environment, for the planet.”

Within the conserved area, Jibi plans to start tourism-related activities such as homestays, food art and culture shows, handicrafts exhibitions, treks and nature trails through which the locals will benefit.

The community conserved area has a management committee to look after the overall management of conserved area as well to liaise with collaborators and funding agencies. Team of experts from various fields will assist the management committee as technical advisor.

Jibi also brought in experts to educate the locals on the flora and fauna and ecology of the region, trained them as tourist guides, in management and operations to run homestays and other skills to provide jobs to the locals and earn a sustainable livelihood.

Jibi has also set up the Mishmi Hill Camp in Roing, a small eco-lodge where nature lovers can stay and experience the wildlife. 

The lodge has five rooms built in the traditional style where visitors can revel in the lap of nature. They can learn about the local people, culture and cuisine and go for treks, walks or bird watching.

Jibi conducts awareness camps and birding workshops in association with the Bombay Natural History Society and several other organisations. He has employed a few local men and women to manage the lodge and pays them a modest salary.

The ecology hotspot

The state is blessed with diverse flora and fauna. 

Arunachal Pradesh is among the 18 “biodiversity hotspots” in the world. Around 5,000 species of flowering plants are found here of which 238 are endemic to the state. 

It has over 500 varieties of orchids. The state also abounds with wildlife with more than 500 species of fauna including tigers, leopards, clouded leopards, snow leopards, golden cats and marbled cats.

Elephants and tigers abound in the thick, grassy foothills. The hollock gibbon, red panda and musk deer are found in the higher ranges. The Mithun, a bovine species found in the northeast, play a vital role in the socio-economic and cultural life of the tribal population. The Mishmi takin is a goat-antelope that is native to Arunachal Pradesh, Bhutan and China.

Mishmi Hill Camp in Roing, a small eco-lodge set up by Jibi Pulu. Pic: Mishmi Hill Camp

It has an amazing variety of avifauna with over 650 bird species including the Great Indian Hornbill, the Mishmi Wren Babbler and the Bangle Florican which are found only in Arunachal Pradesh.

Over time, factors such as fragmentation of natural habitats, deforestation, Jhum cultivation, timber felling, hunting, soil erosion and urbanization have led to a loss of biodiversity.

Return to the roots

Jibi grew up in Roing town in Dibang Valley. His parents were farmers and were illiterate. But they educated their five children who are all well-settled now.

Jibi studied initially in the village school then went to Delhi for higher studies and later worked in a travel agency. However, he was keen to return home after he saw how development efforts were wreaking havoc in the area.

Most of the tribes in Arunachal follow either Buddhism or practise animism.

But with education, development and modernisation, people have forgotten the old practices that were aimed at protecting the environment. “Modern education changed the outlook of people. Now they see everything as a resource to be exploited and not to be protected. This has led to the destruction of natural habitats,” he says.

Hunting and poaching became widespread as outsiders lured locals with money to hunt animals which led to a decline in animal numbers.

It was thus that Jibi began working at the grassroots level within his community to educate them and create awareness about the need for conservation.

He hopes in the coming years, other villages too will take up the eco-tourism model. “I am showing them a successful model. I can guide them but ultimately it is up to them to take the initiative to save our planet,” he signs off.

First published by 30 Stades on 3 Jun. 2022

A limerick ode to Purple Rain

A tree stands, hungover,
wanting, it seems, to be here
moreover.

Syzygium cumini
Branches untidy
Fruits aplenty.

Drops purple squish, in season
beyond belief and reason.
Ignored by birds, bees and humans
and watching it go waste, such treason.

I try to pick them off the floor

but alway the grit is more.

Damaged and bruised are they by the fall.

I need a net, to catch them all!

Thanks to my faithful reader Sagarika

From the land of Jambudvipa

through these lines I proclaim-a

the plentiful and wild, purple rain-a.

Nature walking

 7th July 2022

WhatsApp conversation with G3.

She:  need to see you.
Me:  Am at mum's,  come anytime.
She: ok.  Tomorrow morning?

Me:  Sure!  

She: 545am?

Me:  Whaaat?  No no...Finish your walk and come, no hurry.

She:  LOL!  Ok 6am - for you.  Come, lets explore estuary!  Send address, will pick you.

Me:  (Pleading) - 630pl?

She - Che(with her trademark duck)  - ok 615! 

 8th July 2022

She sends a reminder at 545 that she's coming shortly.  I am saying wait, I have to have coffee, wear shoes....

Thank you G3, for hustling me into the walk, which I thoroughly enjoyed, along with the giggles over God Knows what!

A herd of buffaloes crossed by lazily, reminding us of Yama and a fancy dress competition where G3's classmate came as Yama, astride a buffalo, if you please.  (yes she brought along the buffalo's owner too!)

The scrub was full of bird call.  Ashy Prinias loudly called from atop the highest branches and flicked their tails.  White-browed bulbuls gurgled incessantly within the scrub.  A couple of green beeeaters hawked.  A Francolin's call pierced he air.  A drongo swooped as it caught the dragonflies that hovered.  In the distance I heard the call of the Laughing Dove, even as there was a screechy flypast of parakeets.  Now neither of us had binoculars, and we only had cellphones.  So we enjoyed the sounds and sights and wondered if that brown bird was a Jerdon's bush lark and was that a Jacobin's cuckoo?  A group of ladies were binocularing into the bushes - peering at what they hoped was a pair of Ioras - but no luck.

We wandered onto the sand.  The tide was receding and we walked and explored the shells among the plastic waste thrown back by the sea.

I found a clean patch of sand, water and shells!  Photograph-worthy indeed.  It was a lovely cloudy day, with a beautiful breeze blowing across.

Among the bonnet shells, clams, bivalves and tower shells was this unusual one - the shell of an Ark clam, I was told later.

Arca zebra - Rohith opined.  What beautiful colours!  Wiki says this is called Turkey Wing clam, after the colouring which resembles the wings of a turkey.  Hmm really?

The insides of it.  I loved the hinge of the mollusc that still opened and shut.  The shell housed a filter feeding, hermaphrodite shallow water mollusc, now long gone.  Dead.

https://www.sealifebase.ca/summary/Arca-zebra.html

"Diagnostic features: Shell rectangular, elongate (twice as long as wide), equivalve. Sculpture of about 20 to 30 irregular radial ribs, and fine concentric threads that cross-ribs and interspaces. Byssal gap present opposite to hinge, moderately narrow. Hinge long. Colour: creamy white, streaked with reddish to dark brown wavy bands. Periostracum brown and dense on fresh shells, covering colour pattern almost completely "

Seemed to fit perfectly for this shell.  The only problem with this id is that the mollusc is found of the eastern coast of the Americas.  Hmmm

As we walked through the TS, we argued whether a bush was the idlypoo ixora or not.  The estuary side was all cleared up - but the only water birds we saw in large numbers were little egrets.

A Brown land crab fixed us with a stare - the only one that didn't scurry into its hole.  He must be an outlier, a leader I thought to myself. Large fellow.

We admired the cacti, putting out flowers, the lotus pond with the full lotus lifecycle - bud, bloom, unfertilised seed case and fertilised - all gyaan picked up from G3, our Green Goddess Walking Encyclopaedia!

The mighty baobab was flowering and fruiting.  What an amazing tree it is.  Every time I see it, I wonder at it - the size of its trunk, the magnificence of its branches.  I learnt a new term - Pachycauls - trees with disproportionately stout trunks.

We spoke about the ideals of the Theosophical movement and how they were relevant even today - yeah along with the giggles there were some serious discussions too.  I almost missed the rat snake that slithered into the undergrowth, spotted by G3 - me as usual watching the sky and clouds.  It was a large and magnificent specimen.

And so ended my lovely morning as the coucal flew across our paths and the sunbirds flitted above.  Thanks G3 - appa would have been delighted to hear how he touched your lives, as was I.  He enjoyed taking amma to the TS, even though he was not much into "nature".  

Different shades of young

Russet Red

Chartreuse Yellow
Or Yellow Mellow?

Terrace views.

Mangifera indica.

Slaves, 4th of July and a morning walk

 Strange are the connections one finds.

Monday morning was cool and cloudy, the roads wet and "puddly" with the overnight rain.  I walked along Besant Avenue, having no stomach to face the Monday morning human litter that I was sure to find along Bessie Beach.

There was a time when Besant Avenue was a quiet, tree-lined avenue, with an occasional car, and an even more occasional walker.  It was 7 am and there was a steady stream of cars either way, but the pavement and the trees made for a pleasant walk.  From Rajaji Bhavan, past the tamarind trees, some Copper Pods and around the bend from the Scouting camp.  The Scouting camp seems to be totally abandoned - I had camped as a pre-teen Girl Guide in that very space, but now the gate is barred and there seems to be no activity within.  Good for the urban wildlife...some peace and quiet within.

Past a couple of Banyan trees that take up the whole pavement, with their telltale red fruits all smashed on the ground, and then I see the pavement strewn with these little white snow-flake like flowers.

I look up to see a bunch of trees within the TS campus in bloom, their branches coming over the wall onto the pavement.  I stop and stare, admire them, before moving on.

I retrace my steps back on the same pavement and give the trees more admiring glances.  They ring a bell, but I am not able to identify them.

A whatsapp message to Geetha and oh yes - they are Wrightia Tinctoria trees in bloom!  Paalai or the Pale Indigo tree, called Doodhi in the north.  I remember seeing them in full glory in the forests of Gir.  The flower formation is called a "Corymb-like cyme" on Wiki - though I could not quite make out the Corymb formation here.

I idly wondered who Wright was.  William Wright, was a Scottish botanist, and the genus Wrightia was named after him by the Botanist Robert Brown.  I wonder why.  It does not appear that Brown was Wright's student.

Wright for his part was a botanist, but what caught my eye was that he was a slave owner, believe it or not, with many slaves and an estate in Jamaica.  He was also against the abolition of slavery, says the Wiki, reference.   

And for me to find this connection on the 4th of July.