Ziro and beyond: Talle Valley’s wildlife jewels

By Rupin Dang

Arunachal is one part of India that if you just made the effort of visiting once, something will draw you back time and again! And those who come back singing the praises of Singapore will forget all about the island state, once having seen India’s forest state. One of the safest places to be in the country, violence and crime are virtually unheard of here; you can leave expensive cameras in your unlocked room and take a day trip, and return to find everything intact (naturally I don’t recommend this). The 80-85% of forest cover ensures a completely sylvan experience that redefines one’s very concept of greenery. A good percentage of the global jet stream supposedly emanates from these forests, one of India’s richest and an invaluable global gene pool for the future. Whereas the entire Western Himalaya has under ten species of Rhododendron, a single valley in the Mago sector of Arunachal has fifty-five discreet species! Surely the term biodiversity originally belonged to Arunachal Pradesh, what with the over twenty species of leeches alone that populate the state’s forests…

Within this wide spectrum of green cover lie a wide variety of forest types. The West Kameng district is the most frequently visited, what with its perfect roads (thanks to defence imperatives!) and decent tourist infrastructure. You won’t find fancy hotels or resorts here, but reasonable and basic private lodges and forest department/governmental accommodation.

Venture further afield and you get to the Upper and Lower Subansiri districts of Arunachal, where you come across various forest types and rich bird populations. One of the most unique communities anywhere in Arunachal, and indeed in any part of the northeast of India lives around the town of Ziro. Here one comes across the rather forward-thinking Apatani community. The Apatanis are a forest-dependant community who also believe in growing community plantations of forest trees, to provide a ready stream of hard wood, building material and related products. They also hunt a lot, and the neighbouring Talle Valley forest loses many a rare Rufous-necked Hornbill or Wild Boar, to the Apatanis! At one time, there used to be an active runway near Ziro, but this has now fallen into disuse. I am told there are a few retired Apatani pilots who used to fly in the air force at one time!

The community forests of the Apatanis largely grow conifers (various species of pine) and bamboo, all for their requirements of wood. This enables them to easily harvest wood for their huts, which are built in the same manner from one end of the village to the other. In fact, people say that Ziro is the world’s largest village, with several thousand huts that look so closely identical to each other that one would have a tough time telling one’s house from the neighbours! But the Apatanis seem to manage just fine, and their Babo wooden posts and Labrang platforms seem to create geographical landmarks within the village. And it would seem that they require their stocks of wood more often than usual as fires frequently break out in the village, and with huts virtually adjacent to and touching each other, little can be done to contain them. With cold weather come bonfires and heating fires in the huts, and these often break into larger conflagrations…

The Talle Valley region has its fair share of cats, starting with tiger (doubtful?) and leopard in the lower reaches, to Clouded Leopard and various wild cat species. The birdlife is absolutely unique, with the progression from plains to middle-altitude marked by a transition in the bird and plant life, at a gap of every few hundred meters.

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