Thursday, February 25, 2010

Community-based Ecotourism

Ziro is a uniquely beautiful place. Just an hour's drive down the serpentine road towards south, one can feel the difference in temperature. Same is the fact for driving northwards and westwards. Only the Talley Valley in the east is at an higher altitude than Ziro.

Because of its altitude, Ziro has a unique vegetation - pine trees, carefully tended bamboo gardens. And permanent wet rice cultivation along with fish. The colorful culture and traditions of the Apatanis add charm to the place.

Though Ziro has all the features of a hill station with additional offers to culture and nature tourists, its promotion has remained much to be desired. A few tourists that come to the place are passers-by, taking the circuit of Itanagar-Ziro-Daporijo-Aalo-Pasighat/Likabai route. The communities has remained passive onlookers while a handful make a few bucks.

A project to promote community based ecotourism has recently been started at Ziro. The project plans to encourage village home-stays, train local tour guides and recommend trekking trails around Ziro.

Watch out this space for more on this.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Old Glory

I came across these old photographs taken during 1971.
This is that of a group of Adi girls in the Higher Secondary School. The building looks much better than it is now.

The other one is also some Adi girls and other artists from other parts of the country in some village. It is difficult to make out just from a few houses.