I will always remember what M D Madhusudan called Arunachal; 'The beautiful land of simple people'. It remains etched in my mind and over the last few years here, I have experienced it too. This post is more of an update from Arunachal about two earlier posts on this blog about gutkha bags and wild meat.
Last year, I've seen these beautiful bags made of plastic Tiranga (local gutkha/pan masala) packets in the Yingkiong town as well as in few villages. Folks used to meticulously collect the packets discarded by mindless people, wash them, cut them and weave them into these bags. It made me happy, the packets are getting cleared from the town and villages, and these bags are being bought by the locals and the tourists. Still, a decision by the Supreme Court taken earlier this year made me happier. Take a look at this article. So now in Arunachal, not only is the sale of gutkha packets banned close to schools, but the packets are also made of paper, perhaps more bio-degradable.
The second update is about the meat market at Itanagar. I was there two days back and was doing the usual rounds looking for wild meat and was glad there was none. Then, my friend informed me that there was a raid just a week ago, the local Forest Department found an unclaimed bag of wild pig meat in the market and then issued a notice banning this. Here is the article about this. Since the peak hunting season begins in early October, this raid and the ban are very timely. Lets hope the wild animals are spared from the meat market for at least this hunting season.
Lets hope theres more happy news on the way to the Siang districts where I am headed for another field season.
