Hornbills in southern Mizoram: history, beliefs, and recent sightings
'This opening post shares a recently published piece of mine from Indian Birds : 7(4); quite enjoyed the experiences described.
“Chika … Chika … ,” the tea-stall owner
called out with a ‘puri’ (deep fried
Indian bread) in her hand, and out of nowhere a hornbill appeared on the
counter and noisily took the puri in its beak. I gobbled up the puri I was
eating in wide-eyed silence. The tea-stall owner did not divulge much about the
hornbill but the staff at the Tourist Lodge at Chaltlang (23º45’14”N,
92º43’30”E), shared later in the day, that the ‘fellow’ had been there for more
than a year and was very smart. It was partial to fruits (and fruit vendors)
and, according to the locals, did not waste its energies by flying in the
city—it travelled atop city-buses! Sharing the pictures with Aparajita Datta
the very next day helped erase confusions I had about the species—a female
Wreathed Hornbill Aceros undulatus.
However, it rekindled my curiosity to know more about this stunning species in
the part of Mizoram where I used to have my home and field base. Southern
Mizoram spans two districts, Saiha (22º29’15”N, 92º59’08”E), and Lawngtlai
(22º30’59”N, 92º53’28”E), and is referred to by Choudhury (2006) as having some
of the best remaining rainforests in north-eastern India. This contiguous
landscape also houses Ngengpui Wildlife Sanctuary, Blue Mountain (Phawngpui) National
Park, Tokalo Wildlife Sanctuary (proposed), and Palak Dil (or lake; 22º12’04”N,
92º53’29”E). I had come across hornbills during my stay in these parts and was
keen to know more of the species that I had seen first in Balpakram National
Park (Garo Hills, Meghalaya), the noise of whose wings I had excitedly heard
while screening Shekar Dattatri’s film, ‘Silent Valley,’ in villages within the
Garo Hills Elephant Reserve.
My mishaps with local
languages precede my interest in birds and this led to my initiating efforts
with compilation of local names of hornbills. Two languages are primarily in
use in the landscape — Mizo and Mara (Saiha is also referred to as Maraland).
Zonunmawia & Pradhan (2004) enlist flora and fauna of the state and give
the Mizo names of four hornbills (in bold): Great Hornbill Buceros bicornis—Vapual,
Wreathed Hornbill—Kawlhawk, Brown
Hornbill Anorrhinus tickelli—Vangai, and Oriental Pied Hornbill Anthracoceros albirostris—Vahai. A publication by the state
forest department (Anonymous 2006) corroborates this listing. In his seminal
work, The Lakhers, Parry (1932) says, “Vahia is the name of the
small hornbill, and the village took that name as it is a favourite haunt of
these birds.” [Maras were also referred
to as Lakhers.] I gladly recalled my trips to Vahai (or Vahia; 22º13’17”N, 92º56’36”E). I recall my
interactions with village council members at Tuipang (23º19’02”N, 93º01’26”E)
during September 2008. We had three gatherings during the visit in course of
our efforts in conservation education. In each of these we put bird field
guides to good use and had them interact with us about the birds in the guide.
They pointed to Rufous-necked Hornbill Aceros
nipalensis and said they had seen around their village!
Since I moved to Mizoram
I have been fortunate to have the inclination and energy to read more on the
region, particularly books by commissioners and missionaries who visited these
lands some decades ago. Parry’s (1932) is one of the more amazing books I have
come across in terms of addressing details. In his description of tribes, he states,
“The Mihlong clan claim to be descended from the
Great Indian Hornbill. No member of this clan may kill a hornbill, as they say
that if they ever ate Hornbill’s meat it would be equivalent to eating their
father and mother. The Mihlong, however, do not offer any sacrifice to the
hornbill.”
While describing beliefs
prevalent in the society he goes to painstaking details,
“It is ‘ana’
(prohibited) however to shoot the cock bird of any of the four kinds of
hornbill found in the hills during the nesting season which lasts from March to
July. When the hen hornbill hatches out her eggs and brings up her young inside
a hollow tree, she never moves out until her nestlings can fly, when the cock
removes the clay which encloses her in the nest and lets her out. Meanwhile she
is entirely dependent on the cock for all her food. For this reason Lakhers
believe that if they shoot the cock, Khazangpa (God) will be angry and punish them, as the hen and her young will
inevitably die; hence it is an ana to
kill a cock hornbill at this season. Lakhers, however, have no scruple whatever
about killing and eating a hen and her young. As soon as a man has marked down
a hornbill’s nest, he reserves it for himself by driving a bamboo or wooden
stake into the trunk of the tree. This is called pahaw. When the young have grown large enough to be worth eating, the
finder of the nest robs it and kills and eats the hen and her young. When any
one robs a hornbill’s nest, he must place a short piece of bamboo or stick in
the nest before he leaves it. This is called masongpa. The belief is that when the cock comes home and finds his
family gone, he picks up the piece of stick in his beak, carries it off to the
King of Hornbills and tells him that his family has been killed with this
stick. The King of the Hornbills, seeing that the hen and her brood have not
died because the cock had neglected to feed them, gives the widower another
wife. Next year the cock brings his new wife to make a nest in the same hollow
tree, and thus affords another feed to the man who has reserved the nest. Once
a man has reserved a nest it is his forever, and he believes that so long as he
puts a piece of stick in the nest after robbing it, he can take the nest every
year with impunity, as the hornbill will always find another mate.”
As I write I recall
another incident concerning hornbills in Baghmara, South Garo Hills (Meghalaya)
(25º07’37”N, 90º23’36”E). We had screened a wildlife film and were in the
middle of post screening interactions when participants shared their views and
reactions. An old lady shared a Garo saying which compared lazy women to
hornbills, for the latter do not move for months on end while their spouses get
food for them!
Other than a handful of
surveys, southern Mizoram has remained in the proverbial rain shadow of
wildlife research. Going through them did throw some light. Pawar & Birand
(2001) in their seminal work on north-east Indian birds (where two of the sites
surveyed by them were in south Mizoram) mentioned Oriental Pied Hornbill at
Palak Dil and Great Hornbill, Wreathed Hornbill, and Oriental Pied Hornbill at
Ngengpui Wildlife Sanctuary. Ghose (1999) did not report any species of
hornbills from his survey at Blue Mountain National Park. Choudhury (2006,
2008) wrote of having seen Oriental Pied Hornbill at Ngengpui Wildlife
Sanctuary, Palak Dil, between Laty and Phura (Saiha), and of having heard their
calls in Blue Mountain National Park. He came across old casques of Wreathed
Hornbills at Sangau and Thaltlang (Lawngtlai) near Blue Mountain National Park.
He presumed that the Great Hornbill was once common based on the number of
preserved casques he saw in villages but says that the species has now become
extremely rare and locally extirpated owing to hunting and habitat loss. We
listed the Great Hornbill among the avifauna of Palak and adjoining forests in
our contribution to Islam & Rahmani (2008).
In Mizoram I have been
fortunate in experiencing some special moments when I came across hornbills.
Oriental Pied Hornbills seem to have the least problem with my savouring the
sight of their grandeur. First (27 May 2008) I saw this species when returning
from Palak Dil to Phura (village nearest to Palak Dil; 22º19’52”N, 93º02’35”E).
It was perched on top of a dead tree in the valley to our right and was calling
loudly. I was part of the team that surveyed the proposed Tokalo Wildlife
Sanctuary and had the opportunity to walk through some amazing forests on the India–Myanmar
border. As we began our exercise (12 February 2009) we saw two of them between
Phura and Tokalo (22º10’26”N, 92º53’25”E). Strange noises from the vehicle had
forced this stop and I was loitering around when both birds fluttered and flew
towards the adjacent secondary growth. Prior to the moment I had not seen them
from so close and it was one of those occasions where I have been happy with
the vehicle not functioning properly. During the survey we walked streams
marking the boundary of the sanctuary with posts and set up temporary camps
each evening. The ambience in these camps was amazing: banana leaves formed the
bed, tea was served in bamboos cut up and used as cups (some images from the
survey can be found in: http://mizoram-samrakshan.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html),
and one of us was assigned duty each evening to ensure the shoes of the team
got dry enough with the heat. As I woke up lazily in one such camp I was
stunned to see (20 February 2009; 2201’18”N, 92º52’23”E) seven hornbills flying
over us, with two leaders, three in the middle and two in the rear. They were
snow-white when seen from below, and exhibited amazing grace as they flew. It was
surely a dramatic way to wake up and finally I understood the difference in the
tail markings (vis-á-vis the Great
Hornbill); the black band was clearly missing today. I had yet another exciting
sighting during my last trip to Palak Dil (24 January 2010). Five of them flew
out of the canopy very near to Palak Dil as we entered the gate. The last
sighting (31 March 2010; 22º22’58”N, 92º47’53”E) was at our camp in Ngengpui
Wildlife Sanctuary. On 23 December 2009 I was distressed to see one displayed
for being sold at the New Saiha market in Saiha. This was just before Christmas
when people were on a buying spree. It looked very sad and even had small shiny
stickers on its casque.
I came across the Great
Hornbill (19 February 2009; 22º01’21”N, 92º52’08”E) during the above-mentioned
survey. I recall talking to myself then, “Gosh, it has such a charisma, it’s
the tiger of birds!” We saw (31 March 2010) another near the base camp at
Ngengpui Wildlife Sanctuary on an overcast day just before it rained heavily.
I sighted two Wreathed
Hornbills (01 December 2010) at the Blue Mountain National Park and this was
memorable. We looked down from the peak into the valley that appeared like a
green carpet and saw them gracefully as if two white patches glided from right
to left till they disappeared from our view.
The final sighting was
the Brown Hornbill (30 March 2010) just before we reached Bungtlang
(22º21’16”N, 92º46’30”E) with colleagues from the Mizoram Forest Department.
The hornbill sat on a tree beside the road in the misty evening. The thrill of
having seen it silenced me for a while. We were to participate in the tiger
census at Ngengpui Wildlife Sanctuary and the sighting provided a wonderful
impetus to the exercise.
The century-old practices
presented in this article give a glimpse of the wildlife hunting–conservation
scenario at that time plus the knowledge the tribes possessed of the species.
The forests of southern Mizoram offer opportunities for conservation of
Hornbills and other forest birds and warrant long-term protection efforts.
Local teams should be assembled and encouraged to take part in research and
surveys of these species. These teams could further help in propagating the
need to conserve them by virtue of their membership in youth associations and
other social institutions, e.g., family and church.
Acknowledgements
I am thankful for the wonderful
support provided by the Mizoram State Forest Department and the Forest
Department of the Mara Autonomous District Council; Pu Tlana in particular for
his encouragement and the energies he brought in the efforts. Colleagues
accompanying us on the survey, people sharing their rich knowledge of the
region and warmly inviting us in their houses (for tea, meals and stay). I shall
ever be indebted to Aparajita Dutta for help with species
identification,Samrakshan Trust, the organization I was then associated with
and the donors who supported Samrakshan’s efforts in Mizoram, Columbus Zoo,
Rufford Small Grants, Kidendran Nature Conservation Fund, and United States
Fish and Wildlife Service. Thanks are also due to the editor of Indian Birds
and an anonymous referee for their invaluable help.
References
Anonymous. 2006. Mizoram Forest 2006, Department of Environment and Forests, Aizawl,
Mizoram. 93 pages.
Choudhury, A. U. 2006. The distribution
and status of Hoolock Gibbon, Hoolock
hoolock in Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland in north east India. Primate
Conservation20:
79–87.
Choudhury, A. U. 2006. Notable Bird
Records from Mizoram in north-east India. Forktail 22 : 152 – 155.
Choudhury A. U. 2008. A Pocket Guide to the Birds of Mizoram.
Guwahati: Gibbon Books. 122 pages.
Ghose,
Dipankar. 1999. Birds recorded at Blue Mountain (Phawngpui) National Park,
Mizoram Between February - May, 1997. Twilight 1(5):16-18.
Ghose, Dipankar. 2002. First sighting of clouded
leopard Neofelis nebulosa from the Blue Mountain National Park, Mizoram,
India. Current Science, 83(1):. 20 – 21.
Grimmet,
R., Inskipp, C. & Inskipp, T. 1998. Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. New
Delhi: Oxford University Press. 384 pages.
Islam,
M. Z. and Rahmani, A. R. (2008) Potential and Existing Ramsar Sites in India.
Indian Bird Conservation Network, Bombay Natural History Society, Birdlife
International and Royal Society for Protection of Birds. Oxford University
Press. Pp. 592. (Key contributors –
Nimesh Ved, Arpan Sharma and Anwaruddin Choudhury).
Lorrain
R. 1912. 5 Years in Unknown Jungles, Lakher Pioneer Mission. London, 264 pages.
Lorrain
R. 1951. Grammar and Dictionary of the Lakher or Mara Language. Guwahati. 372
pages.
Parry
N. E. 1932. The Lakhers. Firma KLM
Private Limited. Calcutta. 613 pages.
Pawar,
S. & Birand, A. 2001 A survey of amphibians, reptiles, and birds in
Northeast India. CERC Technical Report #6, Centre for Ecological Research and
Conservation, Mysore.
Singh, D. 1996 The last frontier:
people and forests in Mizoram. Tata Energy Research Institute. New Delhi.
301 pages.
Ved, N., & S, Lalramnuna. 2008.
Yellow bellied Weasel Mustela kathiah
records from Mizoram, India. Small Carnivore Conservation39:35 - 36.
Zonunmawia, A., & Pradhan, N. 2004. Mizoram and its wildlife. Aizawl: Center
for Environment Protection. 69 pages.
Website
links
A
pet hornbill was shot in Aizawl and culprits arrested: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-02-14/wild-wacky/28546814_1_hornbill-jail-custody-pet.
Aizawl, which has quite a few
bloggers, also did talk about the bird ~ http://mizohican.blogspot.com/2011/02/chp-336-rip-zika.html.
This is from my blog: http://mizoram-samrakshan.blogspot.com/2010/09/they-say-she-is-smart.html.
List of
Important Bird Areas and protected areas
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Name
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Link
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Citation
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Balpakram
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BirdLife International (2011) Important
Bird Areas factsheet: Balpakram Complex. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 05/12/2011
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Ngengpui
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BirdLife International (2011) Important
Bird Areas factsheet: Ngengpui Wildlife Sanctuary. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 05/12/2011
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Blue Mountain
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BirdLife International (2011) Important
Bird Areas factsheet: Blue Mountain (Phawngpui) National Park. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 05/12/2011
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Palak
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BirdLife International (2011) Important
Bird Areas factsheet: Palak Dil. Downloaded fromhttp://www.birdlife.org on 05/12/2011
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