Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
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Our primary activity in Eaglenest was to go looking for birds. We were to spend the first few days in a campsite called Bompu. This was one of the camping grounds in Eaglenest, along with Sessni, Sundarview and lama camp. We were to proceed to lama camp after spending a few days in Bompu, and would briefly visit Sessni and Sundarview while bird watching.
Bompu camp had a couple of tents and indoor accommodation. Tents were comfortable enough and were sufficient to protect from the elements. We all had carried sleeping bags to keep us warm but it used to get pretty cold in the night. Food at the camp was staple diet – chapathi, rice and sabji. Chai and biscuits were always in supply.
Our guide for the trip – Shashank was a man with truck loads of enthusiasm. He was always the first one to wake up in the morning and last one to go to bed. He would come with us for all the birding activity while finding time to walk a bit and look for birds even when we were all resting. He also took care of overseeing day-to-day operation of the camp and despite all this, never seemed to get tired.
Lichens drooping from the branches were common in the wet weather
The very first birding walk gave us a glimpse of Arunachal weather. It was an overcast day and often used to get foggy. Shashank said it is a good weather birding compared to a warm and sunny day. We took the road heading up the hill and started walking early in the morning. The forest on the way, we noticed, is untouched except for the road that breaks through it. It is a thick, moist evergreen world. Occasionally white flowers of Michalia erupted out of the greens. Moist branches from the trees hosted lichens drooping from them and gave an eerie look. We some times saw a few warblers and minivets hopping from branch to branch. Nearly all the birds we encountered were new and were not found in rest of India. As we walked, occasionally clouds would become overweight and sprinkle short spells of rain over us, some thing we were prepared for it. After an hour or so of walk, it finally started pouring hard, forcing us to retreat. Shashank smiled and said – “this is Arunachal weather!”
Eye-catcher in the forest…
By the time we were back at the camp, it was dry again and sun shown brightly. Our first few days in Eaglenest remained like this, but the clouds finally moved away in the latter days. The sunny afternoon rewarded me with a picture of Dark Throated Thrush.
Dark Throated Thrush
We walked in the opposite direction after we had lunch at the camp and stayed on the road till dark. The day’s sightings included, along with many other birds, Longtailed Minivets, Veriditer Flycatcher, Greyheaded Canary Flycatcher, White-throated Fantail, Yellow-bellied Fantail, Ashy-throated Warbler, etc,..
Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
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On our way to Eaglenest, we journeyed through the plains of Assam, leaving Guwahati for Tezpur and then through Sonitpur district to enter Arunachal via Missimari. We returned on a different route, on the Bomdila-Tezpur highway passing through Balipara and Bhalukpong. During both the journeys we were all shocked to see miles and miles of Assam’s plains, which were once thick jungles, cut down into an ocean of no more than a feet high tree trunks! Although I could not figure out the reason for deforestation in such large scale, someone told me that it was intended to resettle the people in this area. I do not know the reasons behind this, but was surely awed by the destruction of a degree I have seen never before.
Assam has it’s share of problems when it comes to protecting it’s environment. The state has a good forest density and has many National Parks to boast of. But the man and nature conflict that we see everywhere else applies to Assam too. Increase in population due to large scale immigration and natural population growth are probably forcing people to make claims on forest land. Conflict with elephants has become a serious problem in Sonitpur district and also in the regions around Kaziranga. Overgrazing and degrading forests had resulted in near extinction of an endemic mammal – pygmy hog. Manas National Park was virtually in the control of militancy group until a few years ago.
But even in Assam, there are people working for conservation and there are some good stories to share. Kaziranga is one of the best protected parks in India and Rhino population has grown considerably in the last few decades, after it was freed from rampant poaching a decade ago. Manas is now returning to normalcy and hopefully the Golden Langurs endemic to the park will flourish in the days to come. In the days when I was in Guwahati, I read several reports in newspapers protesting against inconsiderate destruction of Assam’s wilderness.
There are also many people working in replenishing the environment. I met a conservationist and vet doctor when I was Nameri National Park. He worked for an NGO – Pygmy Hog Conservation Program – and spent his time in Nameri trying to rear nearly extinct pygmy hogs in captivity and release them into the wilderness. He was also working on a project to amicably resolve the conflict of elephants with people in Sonitpur district. Assam has many such NGOs who are the hope for the future of its wilderness.
Arunachal Pradesh has a completely different story to tell. My host in Eaglenest told us a story about its past –
“When we first came here more than a decade ago, we saw trucks loaded with timber rolling down the Tezpur highway one after other. There was no end to their continuous flow. They used to carry huge logs that were sometimes as thick as the truck itself. I once saw a huge tree that was cut down.. They were not able to load it to the truck because it was too big and would not fit into the truck..!”
Fortunately, all that is past. After a supreme court ban on felling timber in the state, Arunachal’s forests have been left alone and have stayed undisturbed. The state has an enviable record of more than three quarters of its area as forest cover.
But all is not well about its future. Tribes in Arunachal Pradesh practice a cultivation technique called Jhum, where they burn a stretch of forest for cultivation. They use it for a few years and abandon it after the land looses fertility, only to burn down another stretch of forest for fresh cultivation. Growing population is putting pressure on the natural resources. A typical family in the state has more than 10 members, and its population growth rate is one of the highest in the country, which may make things go worse in the coming days.
To be continued..
Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
+Previous: About vacation for conservation
+Next: Assam’s degrading environment
+Go to the beginning of the series
When I took off to the North East, I had a few worries in mind. The primary concern was safety. With many insurgent groups troubling most of the North East, the worry of becoming a victim was always there. The next thing that bothered me is infrastructure to let me commute comfortably and at will.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Infrastructure in the plains of the North East is almost on par with rest of India. There are plenty of roads and some of them are maintained by the highly respectable Border Roads Organization – BRO. But public transport is not as reliable as it should be. Although most places in the plains are well connected, it may require some planning and knowledge of bus timings if you are planning to go anywhere other than the big towns. Going to Kaziranga, for example, took me long waits at Tezpur. I did not see much of public transport around Cherrpunjee area too. Remote areas in the region are hardly accessible by bus, and this is especially true with Arunachal Pradesh. It is a tough job to find buses going to Tawang or such far-away places. And the North-East doesn’t have a good train network either. But if you are planning to go from Guwahati to bigger towns like Tezpur or Shillong, you just have to get to the bus terminus and you will most likely find a bus ready for you. And these inter-city buses are usually well maintained and comfortable to travel in.
SAFETY
I did not see any reason to worry about the safety aspect while I was in the North-East. It is said that Manipur and some surrounding regions may not be safe to travel to but Assam and Meghalaya are generally safe. Arunachal Pradesh is known to have some hostile tribal communities, but if you are sticking to the main roads and do not wander off too much, you should not have any trouble here either. We did see some unfriendly people but none of them harmful. When I was in Nameri National Park, one of my fellow travellers asked a staffer if he is an Assamese. And he replied – “No, we are not Indians, we are a separate nation called Bodoland”. Assam has its share of internal problems and a history of violence but it is largely peaceful these days and travellers need not really worry too much.
CONVENIENCE
Tourist infrastructure has plenty of room to improve in the entire North-East. Budget travellers to North-East may sometimes see that accommodation is in short supply. Even in a touristy place like Tawang, we had a tough time in finding a place to stay. When I was in Kaziranga, most of the privately owned budget hotels were closed and the government guest houses were fully booked. I was lucky to find a place but some people who arrived after me failed to find any accommodation. And when I was in Nameri National Park, I did not notice any tourist facilities except a privately owned resort where we stayed.
People travelling with a mid-range budget would be delighted to know that the hotels and resorts here have still remained inexpensive and affordable. You can find a decent mid-range hotel in a touristy place at prices starting as low as Rs.600 to Rs.800, which would have cost two to three times elsewhere. But one always needs to book, since availability is limited.
Few towns are equipped with ATMs and it is essential to carry plenty of cash. Credit cards are also not widely accepted except in major locations. I did run into a situation where I ran low of money and had to make some change of plans just so that I can go through a town having ATMs.
To be continued..