Most government officials consider a posting in Northeast India or the Andaman & Nicobar Islands a punishment on account of the remoteness and the lack of ‘amenities’. In my case these are the very reasons I treasure such postings. The five years I spent in Itanagar with the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), in the beautiful land of hornbills, were among the best of my life.
The lack of comforts was no bother, but what troubled me was the onslaught of ‘developmental activities’ that are dismantling the very natural infrastructures that make landscapes such as Arunachal Pradesh so unique and so vital to the survival of the Indian subcontinent.
Road construction between Yingkiong and Tuting has resulted in several landslides. This will soon become the norm as heavy rainfall on destabilised slopes triggers more frequent mudslides. Bulldozers and JCBs will then have to be stationed permanently, year around, to clear road blockages. The impact of the noise pollution from heavy earthmoving machinery and their impact on vertebrates and slow-moving herpetofauna can only be imagined. It’s a lucrative business and one must be there to witness the massive number of earth-moving heavy equipment deployed in one of the world’s most biodiverse wonderlands. The Itanagar Wildlife Sanctuary has been particularly badly hit and poor town planning and faulty drainage systems have literally choked Itanagar. At one time this was a secluded natural haven. In the past few years, the number of vehicles has quadrupled and traffic jams, chaos, dust and pollution are the order of the day.
EXPLORING THE UPPER SIANG
Between October 24 and November 5, 2017, a team of researchers from the ZSI participated in an expedition to the Dihang-Dibang Biosphere Reserve (DDBR). Two teams were formed, one for the Mouling National Park in Upper Siang district (of which I was part) and the other for the Dihang Wildlife Sanctuary in the Anini district. The Ramsingh and Mombdo Range Officer, Rupir Boli, and village elders said they had never had any visitors and cautioned that the Adi tribe living in Mouling were seasoned hunters, their homes replete with trophies of wild animals.
This story is from the June 2018 edition of Sanctuary Asia.
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This story is from the June 2018 edition of Sanctuary Asia.
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