Bikram Grewal
Glouthera fragrantisima, a climber locally known as Khwono, is from where the name Khonoma comes from. The quaint village of Khonoma, settled by the Angami tribe 400 years ago sits approximately 20kms south-west of Kohima, the capital of Nagaland. Nagaland today, in many ways, is a world without life – miles and miles of countryside are enveloped in eerie silence with all life forms having found their way into the cooking pot over the years. Having heard that the Khonoma area was an exception, I decided to visit the village in early November. From my past experience in the area, I was sceptical about what we might be able to see, if anything at all. Nagaland is infamous for its hunting habits and this has resulted in very shy birds and elusive animals.
Overcoming this scepticism, we travelled through Dimapur and found ourselves at our destination, which sat in an arena with terraced crop-fields in the valley and lush green mountains surrounding it. My experience over the next few days changed my opinion about the avian wealth of Nagaland. There was bird-life everywhere, and calls of the Hill Partridge (Arborophila torqueola) and Great Barbets (Megalaima virens) resonated across the serene valley.
Over three days of birding in the Khonoma Nature Conservation and Tragopan Sanctuary (KNCTS) and the Dzülekie area, 30 kms away, we were rewarded with sightings of such rarities like the Rusty-capped Fulvetta (Alcippe dubia), Large Niltava (Niltava grandis), Red-faced Liocichla (Liocichla phoenicea), Mountain Bamboo Partridge (Bambusicola fytchii), Long-tailed Wren Babbler (Spelaeornis chocolatinus), White-browed Piculet (Sasia ochracea) and the Crested Finchbill (Spizixox canifrons). Bird life was abundant and many species exhibited interesting plumage variations leading to localized sub-species distributions. Of particular interest were Black-throated Tits (Aegithalos cocinnus manipurensis), Red-whiskered Bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus monticola) and Red-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer stanfordi). Khonoma is also the best place to see the endangered Blyth’s Tragopan (Tragopan blythii) and the villagers have created a community reserve to protect this particular species.
The Khonoma experiment is unique in the wildlife conservation annals of Nagaland. For forest-dependent people who now voluntarily create a safe haven for wildlife and aggressively protect the denizens, this is nothing short of a miracle. All this was possible because of the gallant Angamis. This warrior tribe of Khonoma once protected several villages and the last organised Naga resistance against the British took place in 1879-80, at the Battle of Khonoma.
The Khonoma’s conservation activities were initiated by some of the village elders, especially Tsilie Sakhrie, who in the 1980s was a contractor for the Forest Department. During this time, a forest officer T. Angami, motivated him to consider dedicating a part of the village forests for protection of wildlife. In the 1980s, Tsilie proposed this to the villagers but could not achieve a consensus. In 1995, he became a member of the Village Council, and again worked on the subject. A number of villagers were opposed to the idea, since hunting was so much a part of their culture. But over the next 3 years, through extensive lobbying in the village, the majority were convinced.
In the mid-1990s the villagers physically resisted timber merchants from carrying out logging, aided by some insiders. Over the last decade Khonoma, has establishing systems of natural resource management, village administration, and appropriate development…all coupled with a resolute will to conserve biodiversity and wildlife. In 1998, the Khonoma Village Council notified 70sq km as a Khonoma Nature Conservation and Tragopan Sanctuary (KNCTS). The Sanctuary’s foundation stone was laid in December 1998; it was also decided to ban hunting in the entire village, not only the Sanctuary area. Rules were laid down for the management of the Sanctuary, including penalties for violations of Rs.3000. The village youth carry out the monitoring, and levy fines, which they then use for their own village-based activities.
The area included in the KNCTS is of great value, from a biodiversity, water security, and aesthetic point of view. It comprises of exquisite broad-leaved forests and dwarf bamboo grasslands. It is part of the Dzuku valley, which is home to a good population of the state bird, the Blyth’s Tragopan. Dzuku and surrounding forests also contain other wildlife, like Himalayan Black Bear, Serow, Sambar, Leopard, Barking Deer (which ventures into the village in the evenings), over 40 species of orchids as well as the endemic Dzuku lily.
Cultivation is done through shifting or Jhum. Here the farmers use Alder (Alnus nepalensis) trees interspersed with the crops. These trees return nitrogen to the soil, thereby helping the land to rapidly regain fertility when farmers abandon it to move onto the next plot. Khonoma today is an oasis surrounded by a great wildlife desert. The success of the experiment is bound to influence neighbours and it may be a matter of time before the culture of scientific wildlife and habitat management spreads across the valley.
