I had posted a tree house photograph on Facebook
during my stay in Pangti, Nagaland, https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152841307263332&set=a.10152676788458332.1073741837.732133331&type=1&theater
and there were more than a hundred ‘like’ to the post, probably because of the
fact that I had mentioned that you can now own this house with a kitchen with
dining cum sitting in the ground floor. These images are from Pangti Village. The
Lotha community in Nagaland had built this village more than 600 years ago and
as they settled down, they practiced different agricultural patterns. To
protect their crops they build field houses, where they live temporary to look
after their house. The pattern of the house depends on the wild animal visiting
the field. 
The common visitors to this
village were elephants, tigers, wild boar, snakes, insects, birds and many
other known and unknown beings. Unknown, because many of the people are
believed to have seen the pygmy people, who prayed by the special fire stone or
Monkhumuv nchu. The Tiger Stone or Mhorhu Etsiphen which is there is meant for
measuring the tiger after killing. The largest number of visitors to this
Pangti village and some adjoining areas are the AMUR FALCONS, probably the
largest single species animal migration known to the world. The number
highlight has happened after the Doyung Reservoir was created.
In the meanwhile, because of the reservoir,
the rivers became less dynamic and the immediate effect was the huge reduction
in fish numbers. The fishermen union President, Zanthunga Shitiri said that our
fishing nets now leave the waters and are spread in the trees to arrest the
visitors, the Amur Falcons, in as many numbers possible... sometimes so much
that our fishermen cannot carry them. At the same time, the ‘slash and burn’
method of clearing for zoom cultivation is fast reducing the canopies in and
around Pangti. Lijon Ngullie, a local but enlightened farmer remarked that the
low rainfall and the loss of forest after the reservoir had been made, our
crops too have reduced and our people have to match the increasing fees of
children at school and the growing prices with growing consumer wishes do not
have any matching livelihood. And, hence the Amur Falcons.
This was an SOS from our very
close friends Ramki and Bano, that Asit and I decided to visit the village. As
we heard the Pangti Village Chairman, Vice Chairman Ronchamo Shitini, Vice
Secretary S.Wabamo Kikon, we could not believe our ears. Last year with the
involvement of the big and International NGOs, Government and several other
well meaning individuals, the hunting of Amur Falcons were banned in Pangti,
posters were put up and awareness programs were run. Also, promises were made
to find out means of alternative income. With the return of the Amur Falcons,
the villagers still wait for the promises to be fulfilled. The Chairman clearly
said that this year it will be impossible to stop the hunting, we could not fulfil
any of the promises which we made on behalf of the several organizations and
individuals. The posters will reflect the thought process of the villagers.
The Amur Falcon season is not far
away. If everything remains as usual, come October 2014 and they start arriving
and lives in and around the Pangti village upto the end of November. All
responsible tourists, travellers, nature lovers, photographers and tourism
associations, the time has come to respond to the call. Adopt one of the field
houses in the agricultural land and compensate the income of the family, earned
through killing of the visitors, ‘the AMUR FALCONS’. Come and live a month or
two with the Naga Village life, or invite your friends and relatives for a week
or more, before you end at the Hornbill Festival between 1st to 7th
of December, 2014.
For details, please write to northeast@helptourism.com or call 9831031980.
