Day 7 - Experiencing Dehing Patkai

7th October 6am

We were originally to check out of Namdang in the morning, but the plan changed to an afternoon check out.  So it was a more relaxed morning start, meaning there was no need to pack and take our bags down.  We headed for the Suraipong range of this relatively newer National Park, I think from the Digboi Duliajan Road.

It was a beautiful morning, and the road was so picturesque, with lovely lily ponds and tall trees.

Before we reached the Park, Probinda brought the vehicles to a halt as he had spotted a family of Gibbons up on the kadamba tree, by the roadside.  What a lovely sighting.  And I remembered seeing them on the outskirts of Kaziranga as well.  We had also heard a couple of troops calling to each other on the Tiwarigaon road, in the Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary and also seen them brachiating at a distance.  Today, we saw them close enough to see their features, their eyebrows and their behaviour.  Their calls are a characteristic part of the NE forests.

The pictures taken of the Gibbons by Meera and Ramesh are in the main trip report.  We craned our necks as they were high in the canopy, hidden by the thick foliage.  The male was busy contemplating a Cadamba fruit in one hand, the female was keeping an eye on us.  Our excited murmurs and come here, go there caused one of them to brachiate upwards and inside.  Then someone saw the baby near the mother.

Probin had mentioned that the Gibbon males feed after the females and children finish.  Couples are monogamous, and they seem rather gentle and shy.

Photo by Ravi of the male gibbon contemplating the fruit.  Probin mentioned that they are very neat eaters, feeding gently and finishing off the fruit, rather than the messy eaters that Macaques generally are.

The forests and the land and the trees are their homes, and these sensitive creatures are under stress because of our activities.

This essay from Mongabay elaborates on their fragility.

"As an exclusively arboreal species that requires contiguous, closed-canopy forests for survival, the hoolock gibbon is particularly vulnerable to the massive ongoing deforestation across northeastern India.

“When a contiguous habitat is reduced to scattered smaller fragments, they become ‘habitat islands’ in an inhospitable sea of degraded habitat,” said Sharma. These conditions can lead to inbreeding, he adds. “The resultant offspring are often weak, sometimes sterile or may have little reproductive fitness.”

Hoolock gibbons rarely move between forest fragments; they may refuse to cross gaps even as small as 200 meters. On top of that, they’re extremely picky about their food, and a restricted home range means limited food options.

Wildlife biologist Kashmira Kakati, whose doctoral research at the University of Cambridge was on Assam’s hoolock gibbons, recalls a gibbon family she observed during her fieldwork. “An entire portion of their home range became inaccessible via the canopy because a single connecting tree was felled,” she says. “I witnessed severely emaciated juvenile gibbons — a phenomenon that occurs when they’ve to feed on leaves for prolonged periods in the absence of fruits.”"

The essay goes on to say that even the Mishmi Gibbons whom we encountered on our walks in Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary are under threat from "illegal logging, land encroachment and expansion of agriculture, notably oil palm cultivation."  Oil palm cultivation, in the NE!  How can planners be so visionless I wonder.

635 am and we see a board that says 6km to the entrance of the sanctuary - the Suraipong range.

However, there was still a roadblock, quite literally to cross. Efforts to move it failed and it was finally cut.  The drivers all banding together and taking turns with the "aruvaal".  

We walked on in the meanwhile - not that we went far - since every step led a discovery.  

Like this Crested Goshawk which I thought was a Kestrel.  Photo by Ravi

Anyways we meandered on and reached the entrance, and it was close to 8am already.  The original idea was to be in by 630, and do a short and quick walk, and return for breakfast to the entrance, and then head out again for a walk.

So, we started with breakfast then - sandwiches and boiled eggs and bananas - before moving on to our walk.

Photo by Gayathree.  Leech socks, water, binocs...and armed guards at the front and rear.  Supposedly there was an elephant that did not like humans much roaming these parts.  (I don't blame the elephant actually - not much to like about our species.)

Dehing Patkai, under threat from oil fires quite recently, was a name, a remote and wild place, and now here I was walking through it.  Yuvan had been a moving force in the #SaveDehingPatkai movement in Chennai, and it was a relief to note that the planned coal mining has been stalled, for the moment at least.

One of the few remaining rainforests and situated on the banks of the Dehing river, the forest also is in close proximity to the oil mining areas of Digboi.  In fact we saw some closed oil wells as well, as we walked by.  The condensation from oil pipes are subject to theft, and the leaks can lead to fires and flares.

As we walked through in humid and hot conditions, I was struck by the dipterocarps that broke though out of the canopy and formed the overstory.

Mushrooms of different shapes and sizes were everywhere.

A pair of great hornbills flew overhead.  The forest resounded with the temple bell sound of the green cicadas.  Soon, the MNS groups was strung across a wide swathe, despite the early admonitions to stay together.  Arun, Sekar, Ramesh and Arjun had marched ahead along with one armed guard - they were the leading pack.  I was in the middle examining the undergrowth and leaf litter, and exclaiming at every bloom and the beautiful dry leaves.

Dipterocarp seeds on the forest floor, 

as also Hingori, chestnut seeds, 

and were these wild balsam?

Bringing up the rear were Yuvan and co, as they photographed butterflies, herbs, fungi and tried to id the trees.

At some point the decision was made to turn back.  I was worried - no sign of Sekar, where had he reached?  (He usually marches along at a merry pace while I dawdle and malinger).  Anyways a guard was sent to call the leading pack back- the message being that we were returning and they were to turn back. 

We hung around and chatted, waiting for them to return.  Pralay of Help Tourism telling us about all the other spots from Siliguri which we definitely should visit.  

After a length of time, still no sign of the returning troops, Vijay gets restive and begins to mutter and pace.  Finally, Sekar, Arjun and Ramesh return, sans Arun.  Supposedly the message conveyed at the other end was that you guys are too old to make this trip, so let's return!  Chinese Whispers to the power of N!!

And so we dawdled back and into the cars, met up with the local children, and went back to Namdang for a rather nice lunch with excellent Baingan bharta filled with chillies and otenga curry.  The plan was to check out, land our luggage into the cars and then head back to Dehing, and then move on to Tinsukhia.

We headed back to Dehing and walked along the outer road where the guards were not required.

I gasped upon seeing the Sultan Tits - goodness what colours.  A lifer for me.  They were like flashes of sunshine in the canopy, flitting about here and there.  I could not get enough of them, and also it was a challenge to see the whole bird as they moved so quickly and the canopy was so thick.  

Probin then took us down a  path where the Trogon is usually sighted.  We were shushed and excited.  It was sighted through the canopy!  Shh - there's the head - can you see that long tail, wait wait come here, you can see the full bird.  We strained and peered and finally, all of us in that group managed to piece the bird together, bit by bit!

And then we went and excitedly told the others when Yuvan shared this picture.

Red headed Trogon - Pic by Yuvan.  The bird gave him a good Darshan, sitting on the branch out in the open.  How blessed he was!  Harpactes erythrocephalus - another lifer for me.

And he also saw the Khalij Pheasant as did several others, but not me.

Another group had wandered down a third path where they were accosted by what looked like some guards - not Forest - who wanted to know their precedents and antecedents.  And so they left from that road.

The sun was beginning to set, and we set out from Dehing to Tinsukhia.

The last rays of the day were catching the tops of the Dipterocarps

and there was this lovely glow on the bucolic scenery. Everything looked so idyllic, even as I realised that there are hardships and tensions aplenty. 

The legendary Margherita as well.

630 pm - we were checked in at the Aroma Residency, and welcomed with some hot tea and biscuits,

and a Rhino matchbox

to boot!

More rain, Maguri Beel and Dibru Saikhowa awaited us.

Communities join hands to keep alive the hoolock gibbon's song

Her is a 2019 article which speaks of two subspecies of Gibbons. (2021 genetic mapping has negated this idea.)

The essay describes the problems of deforestation and fragmented forests for brachiating Gibbons who are also picky eaters.

Communities join hands to keep alive the hoolock gibbon's song

Not two, only one species of hoolock gibbon in India: study

Not two, only one species of hoolock gibbon in India: study

Not two, only one species of hoolock gibbon in India: study

Sahana

Fourteen years after reports noting that India has two separate species of the gibbon – the hoolock gibbon and the eastern hoolock gibbon – a latest genetic analysis has now proved that there is only one species of ape in India.

Hoolock gibbon (Hoolock hoolock) is the only gibbon (apes in the family Hylobatidae) found in India, according to the analysis. Earlier, northeastern India was said to be home to two species: eastern (Hoolock leuconedys) and western hoolock (Hoolock hoolock) gibbons. A study led by Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad scientists states that there is no separate species of eastern hoolock gibbon in northeast India, debunking earlier research that had suggested a separate species (the assumed eastern hoolock gibbon) based on coat colour.

The CCMB research team was led by G. Umapathy; the other members of the team were Mihir Trivedi, Shivakumara Manu, Sanjaay Balakrishnan, Jihosuo Biswas, and N. V. K. Asharaf.

“These two populations are kept separately in the zoos and not allowed to breed, now they can be allowed to breed as they belong to single species. Further, a slight coat colour change in any species does not make a separate species. One has to examine genetic characteristics before describing a species,” G. Umapathy, Group Leader, Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES), CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, told Mongabay-India.

“We estimate that gibbon divergence from a common ancestor occurred 8.38 million years ago and that the split between H. hoolock and H. leuconedys occurred 1.49 million years ago,” the authors said.

Hoolock gibbon was described first in 1834, in the erstwhile kingdom of Assam by American naturalist R. Harlan. Previously eastern and western hoolocks were considered as sub-species but were later classified as species in 2005. The first distribution record of eastern hoolock gibbons in India was published in 2006.

Western hoolock gibbon is distributed all over northeast India, south and east of Brahmaputra river; along with Bangladesh and Myanmar. The eastern hoolock gibbon (termed as Mishmi hills hoolock in the paper) is distributed between Nao-Dehing, Lohit and Dibang rivers in Arunachal Pradesh. IUCN states that the presence of H. leuconedys in India is uncertain. In 2013, primatologist Anwaruddin Choudhury proposed H. hoolock mishmiensis, a sub-species of western hoolock gibbon found in the Mishmi hills.

Study co-author Jihosuo Biswas said the genetic analysis was necessary to clear the confusion between two physically different hoolock gibbon populations. The scientists collected blood, tissue, and faecal samples from various populations of H. hoolock and the Mishmi Hills gibbons in the wild, zoos, and rescue centers in northeast India. The study could not find any genetic differences between H. hoolock and the assumed eastern hoolock gibbon population in the region between the Lohit and Dibang rivers in northeast India.

The study suggests that the Mishmi hills hoolock is not a subspecies of H. hoolock but a population that was recently separated from the main H. hoolock population by the Barak river. The population of gibbons in Southern Assam, Mizoram and Bangladesh constitutes a “meta-population”. Metapopulations are populations of subpopulations within some defined area, in which dispersal from one local population (subpopulation) to at least some other habitat patches is possible.

“Our findings will help establish the species identity of the gibbons and can be used to create an effective gibbon conservation breeding program that will be undertaken by many Indian zoos and also aid translocation programmes,” Biswas of Primate Research Centre Northeast India, Guwahati told Mongabay-India.

Known for their vigorous vocal displays, gibbons are unique small apes, with 20 species, all of them endemic to south and southeast Asia. Gibbons play an important role in seed dispersal, which contributes to maintaining the health of the forests they call home, and benefit the communities that also use forest resources, states the International Union for Conservation of Nature, adding that globally, gibbons are one of the most threatened families of primates.

Gibbons are pair-living, usually with a monogamous mating system, and the adult male and female of a group sing prolonged duets. Hoolock gibbon adults exhibit distinct sexual dimorphism in pelage colouration, the males are black overall and the female becomes varying shades of brown and fawn at maturity, the study states. Both H. hoolock and H. leuconedys infants are born with a pale brown natal coat (infants are nearly white) similar in colouration to that of adult females. Infants of both sexes turn black.

Scientists say the identification of species and their distributions is crucial for successful conservation and understanding speciation. Phylogenetics plays an important role in recognising species and understanding their relationships with other taxa. Although new species have been declared based on distribution and morphology, phylogenetic studies are an integral part of describing and delineating a species through integrative taxonomy. In addition to assisting in situ conservation efforts by assessing the phylogenetic diversity of a taxon, phylogenetics is also useful for conservation breeding and captive management strategies and directly affects decisions regarding which individuals to breed, to prevent hybridisation and to maintain genetic diversity.

Primatologist Dilip Chetry who is not associated with the study said there is scope for more research in this direction by taking the samples from higher altitudes from Mishmi hills as well as from plain areas of Sadiya, Wakro, Kamlang and other areas from the north bank of Noadehing river.

Divya Vasudev, a senior scientist with Conservation Initiatives who is not associated with the study said, “The paper is critical for our understanding of the evolution, ecology and conservation status of both the eastern and western hoolock gibbon. We know now that there are populations of the western hoolock gibbon – a highly endangered species – and habitat for the species in Arunachal as well.” Divya has worked in Garo Hills in Meghalaya on gibbons.

“This also emphasises how important community-based conservation is for the western hoolock gibbon. The threats to the species remain though, and this understanding will only support on-ground conservation efforts for gibbons” she added.

Read more: Communities join hands to keep alive the hoolock gibbon’s song

Day 6 - On to Digboi. The Oil Museum.

 6th October 4pm

October ' 22

And so we arrived at Namdang House, Digboi, after navigating hundreds of highway cows that assumed their job was reckless driving control, as they stood across the road, any way they pleased.

Our driver Shamim sombrely mentioned how so many families have lost their young men to insurgency, in this region.  ULFA and Surrendered ULFA - both sides to blame, both sides guilty of coercion and all the same sordid crimes.  Looking around it was hard to believe, that this green and now seemingly peaceful countryside was so wracked and troubled.

Once again, our large group size meant that we were split into two spaces - the hotel itself and some of us into the "service apartment" in the next building.  Sekar and I were told 3rd floor, and I confidently walked into one verandah, where a young hapless man told me rather gingerly, madam these are our Quarters, you see, we live here.  He sounded apologetic for causing this inconvenience to me.  I was impressed with myself, while Sekar had this nonplussed look, turns out we had to go around the building to the other side.  The apartments were new and so nice - Sekar and me in one room and the Tirunelveli Twins Suresh and Ravi in the other.  

We were here to explore Dehing Patkai, the next day.  The Dehing Patkai and the oil stories are very interconnected.  For the moment, I focus on the oil.

The Digboi rainbow

The Starlings that seemed to be curious about our arrival.  The Indian pied myna (Gracupica contra) - there is a NE subspecies that has reduced streaking on the shoulder and nape I believe.  Quite striking.

Raja in his stentorian voice announce that there was an oil museum and it closed at 4 and we should leave immediately.  So, drop bags in the room, enjoy the rainbow and the starlings on the wire and then off we went again.

And the lovely thing of small towns - everywhere you need to go is 5 minutes away, and people are quite willing to open up beyond hours.

We drove along the road we came in on, which seemed filled with many religious buildings.  There also seemed to be a prayer meeting of Srimant Shankardeva.  I came to learn that he has a lot of followers in the Assam region, and I guess could be called a spiritual reformer, breaking the caste barrier and living a simple life.

The sun was setting and the market lights were twinkling.  I was reminded of my geography teacher at school Ms Rohini.  She passed away just a fortnight ago, and I am sure she will be smiling at my delight at seeing my geography lesson come alive.  

We crossed the Digboi Club - it said Established 1922 on the wall, that made it a 100 years old this year, and possibly the "Oil company" area - lawns and flower beds.

 The museum is within the campus of the refinery, and when we alighted there was a strong whiff of the petroleum , like being in a petrol bunk, but a little different.  We were courteously told that we could not take our phones or cameras in.  I wonder why these rules - you would think you want more people to take pictures and spread the word, visit.  

Large models of how the first oil was discovered, and of course the legend of the "dig boy, dig" story was on the walls.  There were a bunch of exhibits which would have interested my father - engines and pumps of various vintages, and a whole bunch of memorabilia of life from decades ago- typewriters, calculators and even tea pots and oil measuring cans.  The story of oil, in the US was also up on the walls.  I scribbled some interesting trivia down about the history of oil exploration on an old boarding pass - since I had no other paper, and of course on return have thrown the said boarding pass away, and now do not remember what those tidbits were.  Something about Rockefeller and Standard Oil.  and Shell.  Oh well.

The Oil Well No 1 was on display outside, where we were allowed to take pictures, and this picture by Gayathree shows the details.

We wandered out, some others went on the WWII cemetery, we went back to Namdang.  Travelling in the car with Arjun led to many fascinating Assam stories that I did not know.  The Stillwell or Ledo Road was one such.  Names like Makum, Assam Oil, Margherita, Mr. Goodenough of McKillop, Stewart & Co. and many such others.  His sense of history of the region was truly remarkable and I learned much from him.  (More in the tea stories, later)

Oil - despite this natural treasure, Assam has remained economically poor.   

Whose Oil Is it in Assam – and Whose 'Development'?

Many regional forces have fought against the privatisation of oil fields, and their struggles represent yet another point where regional aspirations could stand together with the fight against neoliberalism.

Whose Oil Is it in Assam – and Whose 'Development'?

In 1867, in a newly occupied area of the colonial hinterland of British India, an important resource was accidentally discovered that would go on to animate numerous resistance movements in the years to come: oil.

Assam’s oil story is now a century old, but the implications of this resource – used globally and traded in American dollars – comes with issues that are extremely local.

The northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent has become a political frontier where an extraction economy has flourished by the destruction of local resources, tradition and economy. In independent India, the first oil field was discovered in Naharkatiya, in present-day Tinsukia district. The government expected it to yield 2.5 million tonnes of oil per year, meeting one-third of India’s demand. The government of India wanted to install a refinery where crude oil from Naharkatiya would be processed, first at Kolkata first and then at Barauni, Bihar.

But Assam boiled on the issue of wealth drain and demanded the refinery be in Assam itself. At the national level, those were the days of the Nehru-Mahalanobis model of planned economy. When Jawaharlal Nehru visited Assam on October 18, 1956, several hundreds of people demonstrated along his route, demanding the oil refinery be in Assam.

Assam Refinery Action Committee was formed under the leadership of Hareswar Goswami and Hem Barua, and the Assam assembly passed a unanimous resolution in support. Finally, the government established two refineries – one at Barauni and the other at Noonmati, Assam.

But the oil economy continued to have an overriding effect on the articulation of economic demands by various social movements in Assam, rooted in the struggle for indigenous rights. The slogans of the Assam movement (1979-85) were the tip of the nativist sentiment against a ‘drain of wealth’ from Assam, reflected in slogans like, “Tez dim tel nidiu (we shall give blood but not oil)”.

In August 1990, agitators of the Assam Movement prevented crude oil from leaving Assam and then demanded that natural resources must be processed within the state. Several insurgent groups, like the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), also accused the Centre of exploiting resources of ‘Bor Asom’ (Greater Assam, comprising some parts of the Northeast) and creating a ‘backwardness’ in the region. To justify its revolt, the front also demanded that oil and coal be primarily seen as helping improve the economic situation of the region’s people.

However, scholars like Arupjyoti Saikia see this as a form of internal colonialism that functions in the periphery. The politics of resource extraction at peripheries and regional aspiration for right over resources are located in an inherent contradiction of unitary federalism. However, the economic exploitation of the region despite increasing political dissent remains unchanged.

Oil is well!

The ongoing Baghjan inferno that has wreaked havoc in parts of eastern Assam since May 27 has prompted questions of how the politics of exploration of oil neglected the rights, resources and biodiverse rural ecology. The modern economy runs on oil. But while oil has improved travel times and communication of information, it has also created grounds for further oppression in many towns and rural areas. These areas often try hard to compete with their urban counterparts for development, including for jobs, expansion of the local economy, increased trade and better quality of life. But oil has also driven the same population towards disease, environmental devastation, poor healthcare, lack of governance and administrative opacity.

Also read: Javadekar Scuttles Bid to Extend Public Consultation on Controversial Environment Rules

Modern Indian political thought has often failed to address such huge lapses in economic policy, resulting in the further plunder of natural resources and destruction of local livelihoods. Oil is also a leading cause of militarisation in areas where establishing dominance to extract oil and other resources remains contested thanks to indigenous claims to land and resources.

The question of exploitation and economic disparity in the oil debates is located in a larger debate about how Assam has been denied an equitable distribution of profits and oil royalties from oil production. This has perpetuated a regional disparity in the course of capitalist development in India, which saw frontiers as the site of resource extraction only and ignored the demands of higher control over resources by the people, which saw resource extraction through the eyes of cost effectiveness instead of sustainability.

Such “profit before people” developmental policies on the state’s part allowed it to privatise natural resources once it adopted liberalisation policies and integrated itself into the global financial system. Between 1997 and 2012, under the New Exploration and Licensing Policy, the government has privatised 257 oil fields. The process took a break in 2012 for two years; from 2014, marginal oil field auctions allowed the open privatisation of oil fields. The open acreage licensing policy adopted in 2017 has one clause that says the companies that file tenders for auctions don’t require any past experience.

This way, the Baghjan oil field was auctioned to Gujarat-based John Energy, a company said to be a greenhorn vis-à-vis oil extraction, particularly in Assam’s topography. Privatisation is not only handing over natural resources to profit hungry corporates but also undermining the longstanding struggle of Assam’s people for rights over their resources.

Many regional forces have fought against the privatisation of oil fields, and as such, their struggles represent yet another point where regional aspirations could stand together with the fight against neoliberalism. However, privatisation has also continued, as if unstoppable. Not only have many oil fields been privatised but the state has also normalised the outsourcing of drilling and other tasks. Even after the blowout at Baghjan, India did not put together its own expert group but sought the expertise of a Singaporean firm to quench the fire.

The catch-up to ‘development’

The roots of a modernity brought about by the ‘oil regime’ needs to be interrogated continuously. The model of development by colonial powers finished shifting cultivation forever. The post-1947 model of development demonised jhum cultivation – widely practiced in the northeast – and destroyed local food sovereignty, and never understood the importance of the rural commons.

India’s northeast is one of the greenest parts of the country but forest cover has been depleting consistently in the last 18 years. In the last decade, deforestation has doubled, according to data mapped by Global Forest Watch. Net forest loss in the northeast from 2014 to 2018 was an alarming 6,229.25 sq. km, which is nearly the total area of Sikkim, and has only been increasing in the last three years.

The very notion of development, therefore, needs to be questioned and the state needs to invest in exiting the colonial ideas of fossil fuel energy, and find alternatives to oil as a fuel.

Anshuman is a PhD research scholar at Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Mrinal Borah is an MPhil research student at Special Centre for Study of North East India. The authors can be reached at angshumansarma13@mail.com and mrinal.borah123@gmail.com.

Day 3 - The moths on lace - at Sally Lake

 Oct 3rd 2022

After the avian-dry morning at Jia grasslands, the consensus was for tea at Sally Lake again!

Sally Lake had something besides the tea, we discovered.  The dining room curtains were full of resting moths.

Here are the pictures which I shall identify by and by on iNat.

The LesserAtlas Moth?

This one at Yatri Nivas

Excited by this, Yuvan successfully pleased for a night moth session at Sally Lake and we went back later that night, armed with the bulb, put outside the wall on the side of the building.

After wandering around for a while, we returned to find more cicadas than moths.

As we stood and chatted, Vijay and Yuvan found the local manager very interested and intrigued with what was happening, and wondered why we were interested in these little "pests" that fall into the food and are a general nuisance.  At the end of the chat, he was quite convinced and decided he wouldn't treat them as pests and attempt not to kill them. Mission accomplished wouldn't you say?

Raptor rumbles in the marshes

 24th October - Deepavali special - courtesy Umesh

Here is the story in his own words - 

"Did some quick site-hopping birding today with Abhishek, Vijay & Shobha, touching Kelambakkam/Muthukadu/Perumbakkam/Karapakkam. 

Kelambakkam - Peregrine seen first on its usual pylon...

... and in flight.

The GSE (Greater Spotted Eagle) minding its own business and seated on the pillar.

The GSE was perched on the pillar, and we watched and photographed it for sometime.   

And the Osprey sat, quite far away, on another pylon.

And then, we also witnessed some real drama:  Suddenly the Osprey took off and headed straight for the GSE,  seemingly for no reason!  

The osprey decided to knock the GSE off its perch and chase it around a bit. It initially seemed like they were both going for some common prey, but then it turned out that the GSE also did not actually have any catch. So not sure why the Osprey charged the GSE. But it was fabulous to watch!

After the "encounter", the Osprey landed on this perch.

Afterwards, the GSE went and sat down on the ground, and this Osprey went and once again roused it from there also!  See the video below.

Highlights of the morning: 1 Peregrine, 1 Osprey, 2 GSEs (or maybe it was the same one bird seen twice, at Perumbakkam and Karapakkam)

Oh yes, and we also saw one Grey-headed lapwing."

Umesh, so glad you saw all this and managed those dramatic photos, so you could share it with us!

Visiting the RIWATCH museum at Roing - Day 5

5th October 2022

RIWATCH - Research Institute of World’s Ancient Traditions Cultures and Heritage - is a not for profit, community-based cultural organisation trying to empower local ethnic communities and involve them in sustainable development.

One rainy evening, several of us (following the earlier visit of Yuvan) headed to this museum, around closing time, located in the village of Khinjili, 10 kms from Roing.  It was a charming little place, opened in 2009, with artefacts from the community.

To me, it felt a bit like Dakshinchitra, preserving some not-so-old but vanishing cultural artefacts and ways of living of the local communities. 

The following is text that was up on the walls of the museum - converted to text by the scan function on the 'phone. 

“ Bhismak Nagar
A Major Archaeological Site
Archaelogical artifacts throw interesting insights into our past, life style of our ancestors and traditions. It helps us to peep into their living times and the historical, social, political and cultural conditions of the people. The descriptions & motifs found on artifacts have often helped historians to make valuable discoveries about the lives of societies. They also link us to various aspects of oral history, myths and descriptions in tolklores that have come down to us from generations. 

Using carbon dating techniques, scientists are today in a position to determine the age of an artefact and thus help fix the timeline of events and communities. These are from the fort of the Chutia kings and his people who lived during 8' to 10' century at Bhismaknagar and near the river Kundil, between Roing & Tezu. These were obtained during excavations done in 1950 to 80s.


The household items, displayed belong to Amunad tribes. They highlight the wide use of bamboo plant-products and expertise by the communities, to make utensils and household articles. The versatility of bamboo, cane and herbal gums is beautifully visible in the 'Yakhana bamboo basket made waterproof for holding rice ber Mud pots, even when used are cleverly fitted into bamboo structures, to prevent breakage. The use of metal utensils is of a later times, i.e, early decades of 20th century indicating increasing acceptance of household items from the plains of Assam. It also marks the shift in trade-link from Tibetan markets to those of British Indian market: like Sadiya in Eastern Arunachal and Chaiduar in Kameng of artistic and aesthetic sense of the people, even while using bamboo to make artefacts. The butter-tea vessel by Monpas, a community living in high mountains, is not found among any other tribes living across foothills and indicate their instristic skill and need based approach.

"ORNAMENTS
In any society, the ornaments reflect the artisitic advancement attained by its members. eg., the Wancho ornaments are marked by crisp designs with brilliant red and black beads, while blue beads occur prominently in Idu Mishmi and Apatani necklaces. The embellishments and sophistication reflected in the ornaments also enable us to understand the social and trade links developed by that society with the world outside, a valuable clue in historical research. (eg., the presence of a variety of rare stones in
Arunachali ornaments could be traced to their procurement from Tibet during the past centuries.) Unlike in the plains, gold is wholly absent, with silver appearing only from the early decades of 20th century as threading wire and medallions. Metal coins are a prominent item in Digaru & Miju Mishmi necklaces. At an individual level, an onament its features and size, could indicate the rank of a wearer, or his/her status in the society. In the pre-independent days, bracelets and ear rings were huge and heavy, but over the decades, they have shrunk to a shape, currently seen across India.  The once common large colourful waist bands too have vanished from daily use, with the arrival of modern education and changes in life style.”

The mural in the outer space

What lovely baskets!  Sadly, I did not find anything like this in the markets. 

Those are teeth of tiger and wild board

It was Ayudha Pooja/Durga Pooja day

"HEADGEAR
Originally evolved as a cover for head against sun and cold, the headgear for many communities also served as an important shield against enemy attack (Idu Mishmi Hat). This resulted in the discovery and use of a variety of very durable bamboo, cane, plant varieties and herbal dyes, and in turn their conservation by each community. 

These hats also demonstrate different seasoning techniques of these plant parts, a traditional knowledge, which is under threat of vanishing from the people's memories today. Over centuries, the headgears have emerged into unique entities, with characteristic artistic designs distinct for each tribe. The head gears foundoften decorated with colorful beads (Wagchoos and Notes) and wild boar teeth."

Before leaving the place, we chatted with girls from various ethnic tribes of the region - Mishmi, Add, Nishi and Apatani, who were studying there.  

Gapi and I each bought one of these baskets, which came safely back, and I loved the weave of it, and in a few minutes with borrowed material, created this (what I thought) was a joyful exuberance of wild countryside.

 On my return to Chennai, I mulled over what this museum meant, what the loss of these cultures meant. Left to themselves, communities should be allowed to move on, choose what to keep and what to leave behind isn't it?