A day with MTP at Chakhang.

As we planned for our trip to Chakhang I was wondering whether the shift in our approach to Conservation Education that has taken shape of recent was taking us on the desired path. In our gatherings, with groups other than school going students, we focus more on setting a tone and allowing space for deliberations (on wildlife) as opposed to sticking to a pre-decided module and giving a message. This I understand holds no interest for participants especially in a society where hunting is socially acceptable and widely practised. We have a plan in place on what to suggest deliberating on, given our past experience with the village (or particular group) but the group has the final say. The crux lies in creating a space that brings them together on a regular basis to engage in dialogues on wildlife. The goal is to make participants talk, think, argue, agree and disagree on wildlife issues that are a part of their cultural values. Frits Hesselink states of conservation education “we often forget that the most powerful tool is a face to face conversation”. The design keeps us on our toes and makes augmenting our skills in wildlife and communication a prerequisite.

More on the approach later and back to Chakhang now. Chakhang has been a late entrant to the list of villages that we visit regularly in course of our efforts in Saiha. Besides the programs at schools and discussions with village council members I had been given to understand that members of the local youth club too were highly interested in our actions. We decided to organize a film screening. This as, so far at Chakhang, we had not been able to discuss wildlife on the platform that film could provide and also hunting had been reported vividly during recent months. The film we narrowed down on was A Hunters Tale by Kalyan Varma and Aparajita Datta. It depicts a story of Arunachal Pradesh though it could have well been of our places here given the intensity of hunting and the species depicted. These parallels coupled with length of the film and my belief that the participants know enough for us to pause or provide explanations mid-way had us screen sans any mediation. “Many attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much” as Robert Greenleaf stated. Armed with having seen and discussed the film twice and enlisted species therein towards our final preparation for the action we went to the MTP (youth association) vice president’s house after dinner to fix the day and time for our gathering. This we freezed over tea and kuva (betel-nut) at 7.30 am the following next day. We had suggested calling about 15 – 20 people who were leaders and had been involved in the discussion during previous visits. This would allow continuity as also space for two way communications that larger groups would not allow; besides of course the limitation posed by the screening using laptop. Electricity was absent from Chakhang during our visit and this ruled out my flashing our new speakers.

As we began the following day with interactions we shared reports of our actions, those undertaken and proposed, and plan for the visit. Our annual report that we have enthusiastically translated to Mizo we had shared earlier.  We had taken all our field guides besides our binoculars and cameras and this led us to showcase the equipments and talk of their utility. I saw that while the participants were very enthused about the mammal and bird field guides and they did not espouse similar feelings for those featuring snakes and butterflies. They told us of their attempt at declaring Mawma Tlang as a reserve with a view to protecting it and they would be glad to use the equipments to enlist wildlife occurring therein!

The film began in absolute silence (I have quit advising participants on this aspect too! If they are interested they will not only not talk but also advise other participants to abstain from doing so!). We then talked of species encountered mentioning the local names. This was followed by a series of questions and experience sharing! They said that people in their village hunt a lot and therefore some of these species that they were earlier able to see they are not able to see now. While some of them had not seen a Hoolock Gibbon (hauhuk or veitu) or a Phayres Leaf Monkey (dawr or pala) one of them talked of having hunted down a Clouded Leopard (kelral)! (I recalled having read of it being reported by Dipankar Ghose at Blue Mountain which is not very far as the crow flies and did try to understand the location from the participant.) They asked of how they could declare the area as a National Park and this led to a discussion on protected areas and Wildlife Protection Act. This I learnt is more pertinent than discussing the issues when we want and yes I have to remember to share the Mizo translation of the Act next time I visit them.

Within the participants not all were agreeing to the concept some asked why we had to save the animals when God had created them for us while other asked why in the world should crop raiding wildlife be cared for or even spared! This led to more interesting discussions and I was feeling glad at their being interested enough to pitch in time and energies to agree, disagree and argue. I myself was highly interested and before I realized was having my 4^th kuva of the meeting. Also while in the regular scenario John and I discuss the questions (for I need help with translation) this time we asked the participants who were familiar with English to help out while John turned observer. Towards the end, one of the participants who worked with the forest department was requested to talk briefly of their efforts in the region.

Before we ended they asked if we could go for a trip to Mawma Tlang together. I agreed happily and asked them to freeze the time. It turned out that we had just enough time to have our morning meal before we were on the move. Having the sumptuous meal prepared by John’s enthusiastic and energetic brother we reached the gathering point in time. Here another cup of tea in appetizing cups greeted us!

We decided to take the route that would enable us to see pug marks of wildlife as also a stream as opposed to the commonly taken route. As the walk began we distributed our equipments amongst participants. As we walked a little we could hear chirping of birds and despite John’s sharing of birdlife here being great it left me a trifle surprised to be welcomed so pleasantly in the middle of the day. I took pictures of the Chakhang skies as we tried to unsuccessfully identify birds that had succeeded in garnering our attention. A brief conversation on the correct usage of binoculars with a participant set me wondering on how could organize conduct nature walks in coming time. I was amongst the last ones in the line and as I walked ahead I felt something interesting happening with friends ahead!

I saw some of them standing with bodies of 2 dead birds and a little ahead 2 of them holding an alive one! My bewildered eyes took some time to recover as I understood that 3 birds had been caught in traps of which only one was alive. Roshni took pictures of the birds and John worked on identifying them, both with help of our friends from Chakhang. As we went ahead I saw few more traps which I was told were set up by children! I saw from close quarters the bird that was released from one of these traps but still held by one of us. On my suggesting he immediately and happily set it free with opening of his wrists. I felt lighter. These were the Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush (Garrulax pectoralis) and Yellow-browed Warbler (Phylloscopus inornatus) as we later got to know on seeking help from Suhel.

For the traps that lay in front of us, we decided to destroy them. This was easier said than done for we encountered about 20 of them in a stretch of stream about 25 metres long! I did not recall having seen such intensity of traps during the survey we undertook for the Tokalo Wildlife Sanctuary during the previous year and thought should check the sketches in N E Parry’s seminal work on Maraland – The Lakhers. As we removed the traps from the stream bed we saw some consisted of strings, some bamboo and some metal; while some were pushed down in the wet earth others had support of heavy stones. Reginald Lorrain in his classic 5 Years in Unknown Jungles published in 1912 writes “The Lakhers have a great number of smaller snares used for catching jungle fowl, peacock pheasants, black pheasants and the like which are numerous, but the general principle of them all is the bent-over sapling or bamboo, to form the power to draw the noose tight around the creature’s neck.” We put them together and discussed on what next was to be done. One of us suggested taking them back to the village and finding out who had put them up while another thought of burning them right away. We finally agreed to breaking them apart with a Mizo dau (a big knife) and disposing them.

We proceeded, all charged up, and reached a point where people from Chakhang come to talk. BSNL (mobile network) signals reach at a select point where the villagers have built a bamboo bench and where it takes about half an hour to reach! We talked, drank water and then split into 2 groups. One of groups (of which I was a part) took a slightly longer route for they wanted me to see the signs of wildlife. The route was one of the more difficult ones I have taken since the survey and the only one with a heavy new camera dangling down my neck. But I was glad I took it for even with my limited knowledge of signs I saw that the place was thriving with wildlife! Porcupines (sakuh), Sambars (sazuk) and Barking Deers (sakhi) appeared to be frequenting the place besides others.

We were tired by the time we reached the top. Mawma Tlang is the highest point in Maraland and presents a spectacular view ranging from Burmese Hills to Tuipang ! Dr. A Choudhury mentions it as one of the locations where Mizoram’s state bird Mrs Humes Pheasant (vavu) had been sighted. We sat down to gulp water and look with awe at the stunning red flowers around. While we could not see Saiha I saw the Kaladan (Kolodyne) snaking into Myanmar (Burma). It was beautiful. We chatted a little and then started off to return by another route. Here we came across a freshly burnt patch of vegetation and the hoof marks were all the more visible. We had slowed down a bit as we came down but were pleased with our experience of the day. As we reached the village we headed to the tea-stall and talked over hot nice puris and chai! A very well deserved snack.

This effort of MTP Chakhang is commendable and we at Samrakshan wish them all the best for such tasks and look forward to a flourishing comradeship. It is also pertinent to enlist names of all of us present then and actively involved in the action. F Aichei, C Robert, S Jerusalem, C Beirosia, Cl Ngopah, C Ngozi, C Jessey, John, Roshni and Nimesh (myself). At a personal level it is a satisfying experience that has provided answers to some of my questions on the path ahead in conservation education. Suhel Quader and Umesh Srinivasan helped by not only telling us of the correct identification of the species but also where we had gone wrong in identifying them. We thank them for their time and cooperation. People of Chakhang for sharing their time and experiences we are indebted; to John’s parents and brother for hosting both of us express our gratitude and of course remember with warmth the old uncle who asked me who the current Miss World was and was not pleased at my saying “I don’t know”.