...and friending the fern

This post follows from the previous post 'gilding the lily'.

The Adis from Bomdo village seldom clear an interesting plant from their shifting cultivation fields since it is believed that the plant retains moisture in the fields. Locally called Asi Gebinyé (the one that brings water), Helminthostachys zeylanica has been reported as a medicinal plant from other sites. The fronds are reported to cure acute back pain caused by sciatica, and are also used as a laxative, intoxicant and painkiller whereas the rhizomes are used in treating dysentry, sciatica and malaria. However, the Adis retain the plant as they believe it helps their agricultural production by retaining soil moisture in the site and are pleasantly unaware of the medicinal uses of the plant!

Sketch of the species from this book

This year, the rains in Upper Siang district were relatively poor and the Bomdo villagers were concerned about their crop harvest. Then, about five weeks ago, a group of villagers went deep into the forest and cut a particular plant, locally called 'Alu layan' which is believed to cause rain. For almost a month after that it rained continuously!

To me this worldview of a remote farming community within which different plants are used based on the community's knowledge or belief systems tailored to the local needs is very interesting and I hope to document many more such adaptations. There is also the Aconitum ferrox plant, locally called 'Omo' traditionally used as poison for their arrows used for hunting, there is the tree, the bark of which is used as fish poison, a palm as well as a tree fern, the pith of which was traditionally consumed during times of food scarcity, lots more to write about and you will soon find information about these here in the blog.

Gilding the lily

To a first time visitor, like it was to me four years back when I came here, the landscape around the village may seem like a random hotch-potch of currently cultivated and regenerating shifting cultivation fields, palm, citrus and bamboo plantations and wet rice cultivation fields. A closer inspection however reveals a well-defined landscape with almost every patch, in fact, every tree and even a stream owned by a particular individual or a family or a clan in the village. Such is the intricacy of the landscape around an Adi village in the Upper Siang district in Arunachal Pradesh in north-east India.

The heterogenous landscape around Bomdo village

One may even wonder, how a patch is demarcated in such a heterogenous landscape that seems to seep in from one landuse to another like in a painting made with coarse brush strokes. Thats where the lilies come in.

Riksu sodok, the boundary lily

The Bomdo village is located close to the Siang river, the river flows around the village owing to the terrain. In late April every year in the Bomdo village in Upper Siang, eight species of cuckoos constantly call, often two or three of the calls overlapping, like cuckoo clocks that need no rewinding. This time of the year, the shifting cultivation landscape around the village features tiny spots of lilies flowering at the boundaries of individually owned patches. Flowering of this lily is also a trigger for the Adi community here to sow rice in their fields. The importance of this lily however goes beyond ornating the farming landscape or providing an indication to the farmers to sow their rice.

Crinum amoenum is a plant that is used by the Adis here to demarcate individual plots within a larger shifting cultivation mosaic. The plant is fire-hardy, is slow-growing and propogates through tubers. The plant, locally called Riksu sodok (literally translated as a boundary ground orchid) is used to resolve boundary issues between shifting cultivators. The size of the tuber of the individual plant provides information regarding when it was planted and therefore how old the patch is, or who it belongs to. In the past, the local institution Kebang in the Bomdo village has resolved patch ownership issues based on the location and the age of the Crinum plant in the fields.

A newly cleared field with the Riku sodok flowering (photograph by Anirban Datta-Roy)

There is much more detail to the way the Adis manage their shifting cultivation landscape. I just learnt last month that there is a fern that they retain in their fields since it leads to water retention. They clear all the trees and shrubs in a secondary shifting cultivation site but do not cut this fern. More about this and others soon!

The trip to Dzüko , Dzüko...

‘Have cool, will travel’, the Megadeth song title, was the motto of that trip in the year 2005. I will let images speak louder than words, but here is the general sequence of things…

Me and a friend from Manipur, Bobby and his friends met at Kohima in July 2005, to get to Dzukou valley. We spent an evening buying supplies, with the adventurous thought of living up in a cave in the valley. Apart from that, more importantly, we wanted to see the valley submerged in pink with the mass-flowering of the endemic lily, Lilium chitrangadae.


The trek begins from Jakhama (12 km away from Kohima). The walk to the valley took us through a gradient of disturbed evergreen forests; initially up heavily human-modified forests and later into rhododendron patches and then down to the valley that was relatively less disturbed. 'Bro', our friend who likes to be called so, told us we need to keep shouting "Juko juko" along the trek so we don't feel as tired!

Amateur trekkers that we were; the walk was indeed tiring and took us six hours, I think the valley is about 10 km, not counting the slope-effort from Jakhama. We reached, and lo the valley was breathtaking, take a look...Mount Iso from Manipur is hidden behind the clouds.

Once we saw the valley, everything was relaxed and it was as if we just switched into a zone where time stands still! We walked on and on looking for caves to stay. The ones nearby were all taken since July is the prime season when local young folks visit the valley too. Here and there small shrubs were in bloom some white, some yellow and most pink, for the lily was in bloom. Everybody we met seemed happy; it was as if in the tranquility of the valley everyone was at peace. We moved on and found a small cave, enough for the four of us and we parked. Here is the cave, more of a cavern, we booked for two days!

Next, we needed a bath, enough to override the fact that the water was chilling. We braved in and bliss drowned us. Thats bro and me, literally chilling out.

The night sky was decorated with a million stars and we saw three satellites moving together in a triangular shape, and we could hardly believe it was happening. Bro had taken some smoke before and we were wondering if we were affected too! We cooked noodles and in the small fire we made, bro dumped in the corn we bought. It was only then I realized that corn, when put into fire without peeling gets boiled and not roasted. We had forgotten chillies, but in the cave somebody had left behind salt, masala and chilles in a cover; serendipity. After the corn was ready, with the dao our local friend ‘Pashchata’ carried we cut in strips of corn into the maggi and it was a sumptuous meal.

Morning was full of walks along gentle meandering slopes around the valley. We did see the lily up close and it looks elegantly beautiful, check it out.

And in the undulated grassy slopes, Bobby was occasionally meditating; best place in the world for meditating.

We spent another two days in the valley, meeting and greeting people and occasionally grabbing a bath from the nearby dzukou river. The river freezes in winter and me and bobby promised ourselves we would be back some winter of our lives; that hasn’t happened yet. Whatever food and ingredients we could not finish, we left behind for the next set of people who would live in the cave, paying it forward.

On another note, here are some of the issues in the valley. 

• Most folks who visit the valley write their names on the rocks (see the cave picture). If there was a way to prevent this, the valley can retain its natural state.
• People dump plastic all over the valley which should be definitely prevented.
• The locals burn the rhododendrons and once the trees are leafless, call it dead wood and use the same for fuel wood. There must be something the local governing council or the Forest Department can do about this. Afterall there could be an alternative of less conservation value for fuelwood than rhododendrons.

Bobby and I realised we have something to give back to the valley, a campaign to follow up the above; hasn’t happened yet and these thoughts are indeed cached in our head and hearts somewhere and we will return to follow up on the cause.