Ecotourism vs Ecocide in Northeast Hills of India

In spite of traditionally embracing shifting or jhum cultivation by majority of Naga tribes, which promotes sustainable land use and biodiversity, the forest and biodiversity are under threat in this northeast hill land. Nagaland boasts of the tallest rhododendron and the tallest rice plant in the Guinness book of world records, Naga King chilly is a contender for being the hottest chilly in the world. There are numerous rare and endangered species of plants; Blythe’s Tragopan, the state bird and the Mithun, the state mascot are themselves rare species in the world.

“Deforestation on a hilly state like Nagaland often irreparably damages the local ecosystem leading to the loss of native flora and fauna.”, mentioned in an article published in The Morung Express, written by Chizokho Vero. The age-old development versus environment debate has always put environment in losing side. That was not an exception in this land of indigenous people. Despite witnessing the terrible impacts in Malayasia and Indonesia, the notorious Palm Oil menace has been allowed to make an entry in this part of subcontinent as well. As per an article published on 31^st August online edition of The Morung Express, by Moa Jamir, “Oil palm plantation area in Nagaland has increased from 140 hectares (ha) in 2015-16 to 4,623 ha as of March 31, 2021. As per the Department of Agriculture (DoA) document, the State Government has further set a target of 15,000 ha for its cultivation. With the Union Cabinet approval for the implementation of a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) called the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP), with special focus on the Northeast and the Andaman region on August 18, the area may increase further.”

According to this article, Member of Parliament from Nagaland, Ms. Tura Agatha Sangma, wrote a letter to Prime Minister of India expressing her concerns over imposing this programme, by stating, “introduction of the “foreign species” in the region would create irreparable ecological imbalance, distort the ground water table and “wreak havoc on the social fabric” in the pre-dominantly tribal community-based society.”

“Large-scale mono-cropping cannot and will not be sustainable for Nagaland’s already vulnerable biodiversity. Clearing large areas of forests and growing the same type of crop/plant will annihilate the remaining diverse species of flora and fauna, that too as identified by the world are endemic and found nowhere in the planet,” asserted Abokali Jimomi, who promotes local products, organic and sustainable farming, as mentioned in Moa Jamir’s article.

Local fruits and vegetables market of Nagaland

India is the world’s largest importer of palm oil, hence one of the main contributors of forest and biodiversity loss in Malaysia and Indonesia. There is a very interesting research paper published by Ward Berenschot and others from Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), in May 2022, Volume 31 of Geoforum. The title of paper is “Anti-Corporate Activism and Collusion: The Contentious Politics of Palm Oil Expansion in Indonesia”. The authors studied and documented 150 conflicts between rural Indonesians and palm oil companies in four Indonesian provinces (West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, Riau and West Sumatra). They found that palm oil conflicts generate a particular ‘rightless’ form of collective action. Instead of invoking legal provisions or rights, communities often avoid formal institutions while adopting largely accommodative forms of protest aimed at improving their bargaining position vis-à-vis companies. Despite regular and intense protests often directed at local governments, their study found that in 68% of the studied conflicts communities fail to address their grievances. Authors’ argument was that this limited success is not just due to the inadequacies of legal frameworks but also to the way in which Indonesia’s informalized state institutions foster collusion between powerholders and palm oil companies. Such collusion has facilitated the repression of protests and undermined the effectiveness of conflict resolution mechanisms.

Thus, the crony capitalism played a definitive role in such large-scale ecocide caused by the palm oil menace. The same argument could be applicable for Nagaland and other part of Indian northeast hill as well. In the 24^th June 2024, online edition of Northeast Live, an alarming news was published stating that state of Meghalaya has lost 17,100 hectares of forest land in six years from 2014 to 2020, as announced by H.C. Choudhary, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest of the state. In another report published in 22^nd December 2024, online issue of Business Standard, Meghalaya saw an 84 square km decrease in forest cover between 2021 and 2023 as per latest India State of Forest Report (ISFR). The report also says, except for Sikkim, which reported an increase of 2 square km forest cover, all other states in the northeast region witnessed a reduction of the area under forests.

Depleting Naga Forest a view from Mon village

The Business Standard report mentioned that the ISFR study did not specify what caused the loss of forest cover in Meghalaya, forest officials in the state said human activities, including agricultural expansion, increased settlement and infrastructure development are suspected to be the reasons. However, in a subtle way the report indicated towards jhum cultivation, as one of the probable contributing factors – “Widescale jhum cultivation holds cultural and economic importance for local communities; its ecological costs are immense.” Exactly what British government did in colonial India to cover up their uncontrolled timber logging and ban jhum cultivation in order to increase yield of crops.

Destruction of hills in Meghalaya for mining and road construction

However, I saw through my own eyes what caused and still causing the loss of forest cover in Meghalaya, when I explored upper Shillong, Mawphlang, and Cherrapunji between 5^th and 7^th January 2025 with my local nature guide Pallav Pranjal. We started from Guwahati at as early as 4:30 am to ensure reaching at Upper Shillong area, just before dawn. The forest on the both side of Shillong peak hiking trail, in Ri Bhoi forest division of Meghalaya, was covered with early morning light mist. The presence of mist was a barrier for winter morning sunshine to caress the canopy of northeast rain forest. That made the weather chilly and us a bit reluctant in exposing our fingers to operate camera. However, a repeated and fanatic, shrill “queek, queek, queek” sound put us on alert. It was elusive Assam laughing thrush. Upon hearing the call, we aimed our cameras to the source of it. But the bird was too quick to get captured. We saw it flew across from one aide of our trail to another side. After few unsuccessful attempts of locating the bird one more time, we decided to ascend another trail through dense bush and thorny forest floor which was still wet due to last night’s dew, hence slippery as well. We had to stop again after a while upon hearing sound of flattering wings and noticing rapid movement through thorny and leafy lower branches of a shrub. That was a flock of rusty-capped fulvetta. And we were lucky that time to get about thirty minutes or more to take enough photos of the flock.

Couple of hours later we started driving again towards Mawphlang and there we explored the sacred forest and the surrounding forests of Lawkyntang, up to noon. The exploration was quite productive with some fabulous sighting and shooting of grey sibia, crested finch bill, spot breasted parrotbill, spot breasted scimitar babbler and few other birds. After that it was time to take break from field work and checking in hotel for shower and lunch. Around 2 pm again we started our journey towards Sohra side of Cherapunji.

The road travel showed me the reality behind reported forest cover loss in that part of India. Actually, it was Pallav who drew my attention towards ongoing road construction and various quarrying activities. The mountains appeared as wounded after losing their skin and flesh. The green cover was completely gone from most of the hills on both side of the under-construction road. The red and white exposed rocks appeared as bloody remains of flesh attached with skeleton of once alive mother nature. Pallav told me, these activities have caused loss of many of his erstwhile birding spots, which were important for spotting parrot bill and scimitar babbler.

To find other birding sites, he had to explore around 150 km around Mawphlang. Although he was eventually able to spot a stunning tawny breasted wren babbler in Cherapunji, and we both could observe and take some very close shots of the bird for good 10-15 minutes. But he also mentioned that, earlier he used to know at least twelve different spots for this bird. Now, only one out of those twelve spots exist, where we could see the bird. In a research paper titled as, Relentless Mining in Meghalaya, India, published in Conservation Science, September 2013 issue, authored by Kiranmay Sharma and Pramod K Yadav, it was mentioned that, “Environmental sustainability of rural areas in Meghalaya has been marred by indiscriminate exploitations of natural resources, mainly mineral deposits”. According to the authors, Meghalaya is rich in large deposits of coal, limestone, gypsum and clay, including kaolin, glass, sand, quartz and feldspar. Local people of Meghalaya and migrants from neighboring states and even from Bangladesh have started mining to survive, putting increased pressure on land and water supplies of this state. The mining activities have brought in the desired effect of economic growth but on the other hand, affected the environment in a variety of ways, which contributed to its degradation. In this paper the authors have presented an interesting observation form their study on adverse impact of coal mining in plant species composition in Garo hills of Meghalaya. The study has shown, in three different sample study areas of Garo hills, in the unmined areas the tree species composition is 113, whereas in the mined areas the composition is an alarming 76. For shrubs the numbers are 39 and 36 respectively, and for herbs the numbers are 72 and 68 respectively. Minning activities also bring air and water pollution which results in the loss of top fertile soil. Hence the lush green mountains of Cherapunji now started appearing as rotten dead bodies with exposed flesh and bone. In the first climate change assessment report published by Ministry of Earth Sciences, in June 2020, pointed out decreasing trend in rain fall (the annual mean rainfall for the period 1973–2019 showed decreasing trends of about 0.42 mm per decade.) in this landscape, which is otherwise known as wettest place of the world.

The northward moving moist winds from the Bay of Bengal passing over the plains of Bangladesh are forced to converge in the narrow valleys of the Khasi Hills with orography providing forced ascent that causes condensation, formation of clouds resulting in rain on the windward side of the slope. But now we are losing this orography due to destruction of mountains by mining activities. Hence, this reduction of rainfall. This trend of rainfall was also resonated in, a very disappointed Pallav’s voice. “There is rapidly decreasing mountain and forest and decreasing rainfall. I would take Meghalaya out very soon from the itinerary of my birding ecotourism.”

Despite such huge loss of forest cover and habitat, in those three days in Meghalaya covering ten different birding spots, we sighted around 35 avian species including tawny breasted wren babbler, rusty capped fulvetta, grey sibia, spot breasted parrotbill, spot breasted scimitar babbler, flavescent bulbul, crested finch bill and rufous crowned prinia. Therefore, there is no denial about the inclusive ecotourism potential of this state. Unfortunately, either due to rampant growth of palm oil cultivation or indiscriminate mining activities, the places with huge inclusive ecotourism potential are facing this challenge of mass destruction of ecological habitat – the ecocide. And the crony capitalism is funding this ecocide.

The wise use of wetland

From deserts I headed to wetlands. In the wetlands of Pichavaram, Bharatpur and Mangalajodi I learnt the unique stories of ecological conservation and ecosystem services that also support human wellbeing. I perceived this as nature-based solution to preserve inclusive ecotourism and discard pseudo ecotourism.

Nature-based Solutions address societal challenges through actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems, benefiting people and nature at the same time.

The wetland ecotourism is a biproduct of nature-based solution provided by wetlands and also further strengthen various nature-based solutions.

Pichavaram is one of the villages of Parangipettai near Chidambaram in Cuddalore District, Tamil Nadu, India. It is located between the Vellar estuary in the north and Coleroon estuary in the south. The Vellar-Coleroon estuarine complex forms the Killai backwater and the mangroves that are permanently rooted in a few feet of water. It is located at a distance of 243 km from Chennai and 15 km from Chidambaram.

Pichavaram consists of a number of islands interspersing a vast expanse of water covered with mangrove forest. The Pichavaram mangrove Forest is one of the largest mangrove forests in India covering about 45 km² of area (as of 2019). It is separated from the Bay of Bengal by a sand bar. The biotope consists of species like Avicennia and Rhizophora. It also supports the existence of rare varieties of economically important shells and fishes.

A dark morph of eastern reef egret at Pichavaram

Keoladeo National Park, or Keoladeo Ghana National Park, is a national park in Rajasthan, India. The national park hosts thousands of native, resident and migratory birds, especially during the winter season, when many different species fly to the Indian subcontinent to escape winter’s wrath further north in Eurasia. At least 400 avian species have been noted or observed in the national park.

The area was developed into a duck shooting reserve in 1899 by the administrator of the Bharatpur State. Through the efforts of ornithologist Salim Ali, it became the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary in 1956, was declared a protected sanctuary in 1971 and established as the Keoladeo National Park on 10 March 1982. Due to its exceptional avian biodiversity, it has also been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1985).

Keoladeo Ghana National Park also features a human-made regulated wetland, providing a needed source of hydration for animals in this drier region of the subcontinent. The reserve also protects Bharatpur settlements from flash floods and provides ample pastures for the locals’ cattle and livestock. In the past, the region was primarily used as a waterfowl hunting ground. The 29 km² (11 sq mi) reserve is locally known as Ghana, a natural mosaic of dry grasslands, woodlands, swamps and seasonal wetlands located just on the eastern edge of terrain that eventually becomes arid desert.

Given its rather centralised location, where the “desert-meets-the-tropics”, Keoladeo Ghana is bursting with biodiversity. Beyond the hundreds of bird species, at least 20 fish, 70 reptile and amphibian, and 50 mammalian species inhabit the area, and over 60 unique species of Lepidopterans have been seen here, in addition to the more than 1,000 invertebrate species. Nearly 400 plant species have been documented in the park.

Mangalajodi is an olden village under Tangi block in Khordha district of Odisha at the northern edge of Chilika Lake. The scenery of this village and its wetlands attracts the visitors. In 2017, this village was declared and functioning as a separate Grama Panchayat (Mangalajodi Grama Panchayat).

Mangalajodi is an olden village under Tangi block in Khordha district of Odisha at the northern edge of Chilika Lake. The scenery of this village and its wetlands attracts the visitors.^{[citation needed]} In 2017, this village was declared and functioning as a separate Grama Panchayat (Mangalajodi Grama Panchayat).

Mangalajodi is known as “heaven” of water birds. Amongst the birds seen here Lesser Whistling-Duck, Garganey, Ruddy Shelduck, Little Grebe, Northern Shoveler, Knob-billed Duck, Gadwall, Indian Spot-billed Duck, Asian Palm-Swift, Ruddy-breasted Crake, Gray-headed Swamphen, Watercock, Baillon’s Crake, Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Bronze-winged Jacana are worth mention. Beside those birds Slaty-breasted Rail, Pacific Golden-Plover, Greater Painted-Snipe, Black-tailed Godwit, Ruff, Common Snipe, Collared Pratincole, Oriental Pratincole, Brown-headed Gull, Whiskered Tern, Little Cormorant, Yellow Bittern, Purple Heron, Cattle Egret, Osprey, White-throated Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher, Citrine Wagtail are also seen here.

Migratory northern pintail at Mangalajodi

To know more about nature-based solution and wetlands ecotourism’s influence on it please read the boo Pseudo Ecotourism in the Shadow of the Bengal Tiger

The review of the book can be found in Goodreads

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214089550-pseudo-ecotourism

The book is available in Amazon

“The wise use of wetlands”

Mangalajodi Bird Sanctuary , part of Chilika Lake, A Ramsar site at India’s East Coast

To respond to various social, economic and environmental crises, today’s humankind seek compassion and loving-kindness through ecotourism. The most successful form of ecosystem services ecotourism, is wetland tourism. 2^nd February each year is World Wetlands Day. It marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2^nd February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. World Wetlands Day was first celebrated in 1997. Since then, government agencies, non-governmental organizations and groups of citizens at all levels of the community have taken advantage of the opportunity to undertake actions aimed at raising public awareness of wetland values and benefits in general and the Ramsar Convention in particular. More than a decade ago in 2012, the World Wetlands Day theme was Wetlands and Tourism and was linked to the theme for the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties, COP11: Wetlands, Tourism and Recreation, which took place in June 2012, in Bucharest, Romania. In COP11, the benefits of wetland tourism both locally and nationally for people and wildlife were recognized – such as stronger economies, sustainable livelihoods, healthy people and thriving ecosystems. As per the World Wetland Day Reports 2012 from the contracting parties, “at least 35% of Ramsar Sites around the world record some level of tourism activity and this percentage is consistent throughout all regions. Of course, it is important to consider tourism in all wetlands – not just those designated as Ramsar Sites – since the Contracting Parties to the Convention are committed to managing all wetlands. Tourism is only one of the services that wetlands deliver. Ensuring well-managed tourism practices in and around wetlands and educating tourists on the value of wetlands contributes to the health of the world’s wetlands and the long-term benefits that wetlands provide to people, wildlife, economics, and biodiversity.”

Ecotourists row through this creeks in Mangalajodi for bird watching

The largest wintering ground for migratory birds on the Indian sub-continent, home to several threatened species of plants and animals is one such great example of wetland tourism. Chilika Lake is the largest brackish water lagoon in Asia and second largest coastal lagoon in the world, spread over the Puri, Khordha and Ganjam districts of Odisha state on the east coast of India, at the mouth of the Daya River, flowing into the Bay of Bengal, covering an area of over 1,100 square kilometres. The lake is an ecosystem with large fishery resources. It sustains more than 150,000 fisher–folk living in 132 villages on the shore and islands. The lagoon hosts over 160 species of birds in the peak migratory season. Birds from as far as the Caspian Sea, Lake Baikal, Aral Sea and other remote parts of Russia, Kirghiz steppes of Kazakhstan, Central and southeast Asia, Ladakh and Himalayas come here. These birds travel great distances; some of them possibly travel as much as 12,000 kilometers to reach Chilika Lake. In 1981, Chilika Lake was designated the first Indian wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.

Mangalajodi is one of the many villages located in and around the Chilika Lake. The village is located about 5 km from Tangi in the district Khordha, 60 km from Bhubaneshwar and situated at Northern side of Chilika. It is a freshwater zone with marshes, reed beds and rich birdlife. What sets Mangalajodi apart is that every winter thousands of migratory waterfowl descends upon its marshes, transforming the area into a carnival as they jostle about with resident birds.

As per an article written by Aditya Panda, in Conservation India, titled as, Mangalajodi — A Village of Bird Protectors in Orissa, “up until the mid-90s, this winter carnival was often rudely interrupted by humans. As night fell on the noisy bird colonies, the sleepy villages surrounding the marsh would wake up. Dark shapes would lurk, gliding in canoes, crushing water-lily pods and lacing them with the deadly poison, Furatin. When dawn broke, hundreds of the birds would feast unknowingly on the deadly pods… canoe-loads of dead birds would thus be ready for meat markets far and near.”

Based on a booklet on Mangalojodi, written by Chinmaya Bhujabal, “poaching was causing irreparable damage to the avifauna of Managalajodi. There were about 80 poachers in the village, proficient in various techniques in killing birds. These birds are regularly sold in the open market, at rates varying from Rs. 20/- to Rs. 60/- per bird, depending on the species and method of killing. A proficient poacher can earn anything between Rs. 10,000/- to Rs. 40,000/- in a year. There was a huge damage to the wetland habitat due to rampant poaching of waterbirds.”

Another related article written by Himanshu Nitnaware in Thebetterindia.com, “the grim picture has transformed over the years, as poachers themselves have become conservators. Hard to believe? The figures prove that from a population of 5,000 birds in the early 1990s, the number has steadily increased to over 5,00,000 in 2021. This change has come around owing to the efforts of Nanda Kishore Bhujabal, who strived for years to work closely with villagers and help change their mindset. Earlier a poacher himself, Nanda realised his wrong ways during the early years of his life, and this made him bring about a change in others. At present, 25 such ex-poachers work towards bird conservation and as tourist guides for visitors.”

The ecotourism association in Mangalajodi, once they were poachers now they are protectors.

Chinmaya Bhujabal, who is none other than the son of Nanda Kishore, mentioned in the booklet on Mangalajodi, that in the winters of January 1996, Nanda Kishore along with some more persons, who later all came together to constitute an organization called “Wild Odisha”, had visited Managajodi village. That casual visit, to view migratory waterfowl, revealed a whole new world. Chinmaya mentioned, “It was late afternoon, and the whole place was resounding with gunfire. They saw many people moving around with guns and shooting, it was truly nightmarish!”

In 1999-2000, Nanda Kishore led the Wild Odisha team in Mangalajodi, could gain confidence of poachers/hunters for controlling poaching. During December of 2000. Sri Sri Mahavir Pakshi Surakhsya Samiti of Mangalajodi was born, consisting of poachers and hunters. Poaching was brought under control since then.

Between 3^rd and 5^th December of 2023, I visited this marshy wetland and stayed at Godwit Eco-Cottage which conducts ecotourism activities in Mangalajodi through Sri Sri Mahavir Pakshi Surakhsya Samiti. My first boat-ride in Mangajodi started at 10:30 AM with guide Ganesh. Each ride is typically for two and a half hours duration. Ganesh was particularly paranoid on that day by the local peasants. The 44 km² marshy wetland of Mangalajodi is also a grazing ground of buffalos. That was the reason of annoyance as the gazing of cattle was shooing the birds away and causing harm to his ecotourism activity. As Mangalajodi has evolved from a poaching hell to birds’ heaven, the influx of world’s ecotourists and wildlife photographers, like any other ecotourism destinations, has set a different expectation from local nature guides. That was opportunities for getting “eye-level” shots of birds in action. These actions could be fighting of two birds, mating, hunting, feeding on prey or flying. The small country boat on shallow water of wetland, can take tourists and photographers very close to these birds without making much noise. Therefore, such expectation appears “reasonable” to this wetland’s human visitors.

This marshy land is also grazing ground for livestock

During my visit, in altogether four boat rides I saw 52 different species of migratory and resident birds including gadwall, spot billed duck, garganey, Northern pintail, Northern shoveler, ruddy shelduck, black-tailed godwit, black headed ibis, glossy ibis, Asian openbill stork, painted stork, Oriental pratincole, whiskered tern, marsh sandpiper, wood sandpiper, spotted redshank, little stilt, and few raptors such as peregrine falcon, Eastern marsh harrier etc. All two days were cloudy and gloomy with light shower, thanks to the suddenly developed cyclonic storm, in Bay of Bengal, called Michaung. Because of that the days were not so warm, which kept the birds less active. Despite such weather I could capture plenty of “action shots” by birds such as catching of snake by grey and purple heron, catching of fish by pond heron, catching of frog by ibis and plenty of flying shots by various waterfowl and raptors. Such is the enormity of Mangalajodi’ s photography and ecotourism potential.

Grey heron catching snake

A peregrine falcon taking off

Poacher turned conservationist Nanda Kishore’s wildlife photographer son Chinmaya rightly mentioned in his booklet on Mangalajodi, “This place is today one of India’s top wildlife tourism destinations having been placed firmly in the tourist circuit. The critical and catalytic role played by Wild Odisha, an organization for conservation of wildlife and nature, in a novel initiative of wearing away poaching and ensuring an alternative livelihood for them, has been documented as case studies. This initiative stands out today as one of India’s best practices in wildlife conservation.”

A Garganey taking off

Tourism which got initiated during 2002 by Wild Odisha with the support of the Chilika Development Authority, is today one of the chief bread earners for the families of the onetime poachers. From the Mangalajodi conservation and ecotourism model the world has understood that regulated, low-impact tourism has the potential to be a vital conservation tool as it helps win public support for wildlife conservation. During one of my four boat rides, another guide Anand told me that he was also a poacher. But now as nature guide, he may earn less than selling bird meat, but feels happier than before for not killing any innocent life.

A pair of migratory Northern pintail