Fascinating Valleys

Valleys fascinate me. It may be because of Ziro, which is a valley though many people prefer to call it a plateau. Valleys everywhere remind me of Ziro.



This is a real plateau in the Peruvian Andes. Hours of driving through this vast expanse of plain area on the Lima-Huanuco highway gives the impression that the hilly roads have ended, until one starts descending again to Huanuco! No trees except for lots of shrubs. The picture below is taken in November which is summer in the southern hemisphere. This area is, naturally, snow-covered in winter.



Paro valley in Bhutan could be a replica of Ziro. Same vegetation and landscape - pine trees, gentle hills, paddy fields, small winding roads.



Mechuka in West Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh has the same landscape again – pine trees, ferns, gentle hills, but much higher snow-covered mountains in the background. No paddy fields. Most areas resemble dry millet-cultivated areas (lyapyo) at Ziro. Walking on the tracks is sheer pleasure. Though motorable roads are being constructed to connect all the villages surrounding Mechuka town, these tracks will continue to be used in the years to come.



Kathmandu valley is much bigger. The city has grown big, really big. The outskirts still retain what the old-timers say signify the valley that was.



German valley in West Virginia, USA. Entirely different vegetation, but same looks to laymen like me. Same landscape. Makes one really homesick.

Village Lodge at Ziro

Itanagar-Ziro-Daporijo-Along route has been the most popular tourist routes, next only to Bhalukpong-Bomdila-Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. Even so, accomodation issue have been a nagging problem in this route. Not any longer in the near future. Ideas of village tourist lodges are catching up with the people at Ziro.

One such lodge with a restaurant has been started recently.

The building, mostly of wood and bamboo, has a freshening look and the restaurant serves Indian, Chinese, Continental and Traditional Apatani dishes.

Old Ziro - a little history

Come 2012 and Old Ziro township will be 60 years old. The neglected and worn out stone at Old Ziro has silently witnessed the changes coming to the place over these decades.



Since the first recorded visit in 1889 of an outsider to the Ziro valley by HM Crowe, a tea planter of Joyhing Tea Estate in Assam, there are records of sporadic similar visit to the area till India attained independence. Though a provisional base was established at Ziro when the now famous anthropologist Furer von Haimendorf was in the area in 1944, the official base was in Kimin at the foothills for a long time. The journey from Kimin to Ziro those days involved several days of perilous journey through pestilential forests. It was on March 24, 1952 that Ziro township was formally established by R. G. Menzies, Political Officer, and divisional headquarters of Subansiri Frontier shifted to Ziro. And on August 15, 1960, the headquarters was shifted to Hapoli.



Today, the part of Ziro called Hapoli is a town whereas Old Ziro still retains the status of a rural area. And true to its status, little has changed over the dedades, except for some concrete building standing like odds men out in the old Old Ziro.



The initial headquarters of the entire Subansiri Frontier Division, comprising of today's Upper Subansiri, Lower Subansiri, Kurung Kumey and Papum Pare districts has an airfield (constructed in 1951 also under the supervision of R. G. Menzies), the office of the Block Development Officer (BDO) and a Community Information Center (CIC) to reckon with.

Apatani Irrigation System

There are many finer practices of irrigation of agricultural fields among the Apatanis. One is the channel within the field to ensure retention of appropriate amounts of water throughout the year. These channels also prevent sudden drainage and subsequent washing away of fertile top soil from the field.

With the increased popularity of psciculture, more innovative methods are being used these days .

Fencing Plants

It is not for nothing that the Apatanis are known to be good farmers. Gardening has been one of their expertise from time immemorial. Gardens are classified into two categories - balu which are near the houses, usually at the backyard and are the typical kitchen gardens; and yorlu, which are further away from the village. These gardens provided varieties of vegetable, notably beans, pumpkins, chillies, gian haman, potatoes and so on. It also served as the nurseries for millet.



One of the prohibiting factors of any kind of gardening had always been fencing, because cattle or wild animals were always a threat to them. The Apatanis solved this problem by using plants like sankhan melyan and tai belan as fencing materials.

A stroll around any of the several hillocks in the Ziro valley is a pleasure and a walk on a path between two neatly bound natural fencing is sheer ecstasy.