Tokalo: Day Fifteen

Day fifteen is about questions on the Wildlife Sanctuary.

I have milk tea after long and Ra comes over to convey some confusing news. I thank the house owners and move towards where the rest of the group is. On the way I see a couple of other colleagues rub their sleepy eyes. They join us.   

After the discussion we move to Lesai. I ask Ja again to check out the trophies and we land up with remains of an Asian elephant. People of the house claim they found them in Lesai stream during 2006. The remains have been coloured in loud green. Saiha is ivory is local language - sai stands for elephant and ha for teeth. The landscape, at some time, was associated with the pachyderms. Today, we ask people if the last remaining elephant has been spotted in recent months!

The Sai of Saiha

I am reminded of The Tree Where Man was Born where Peter Matthisessen writes, ‘I can watch elephants (and elephants alone) for hours at a time, for sooner or later the elephant will do something very strange such as mow grass with its toenails or draw the tusks from the rotted carcass of another elephant and carry them off into the bush. There is mystery behind that masked gray visage, an ancient life force, delicate and reserved for mountain peaks, great fires, and the sea’.

The meeting that NT had arranged at a house during this while has come to an end. Lesai currently exists within the Wildlife Sanctuary boundary and the vast land it controls it has been handed over to it by the Tokala Village Council. NT apparently went overboard and by the time the meeting came to an end had 3 Lesai fellows leave to discuss the issue with Tokalo VCP. He said they will be relocated from their current location. I wondered on whether it was a typical Forest Department approach or it was a person, late in his life, getting to meet his ego needs. He suddenly realized that his position, more or less inconsequential at Saiha, made him a powerful person at the moment. 

The meeting stretched, I too got up and saw other parts of the house

Lesai people, like those in other village, take up both jhum and orchards. Some of them also go to Aizawl and Lunglei for labour. What, I wonder, drives this. The only school in the village has 4 teachers; 2 of them are from Saiha and have never attended the school. I talk to young man of 22. He has studied till class 7, dropped out of school since, and is currently helping his parents. I ask him if it is lack of school, teachers or other issues that have students in these parts dropping out of school. His answer is simple – like a lot in these parts - they just do not want to study. The village has neither a tea-stall nor a provision-store. One house, however, owns a television. I see a chart depicting animals on the wall and realize even in the materials we take children away from what is around them. Giraffe, gorilla and zebra graced the walls besides others and as if it was not enough there were spelling errors. Before I leave I take a picture of a 16 inch hornbill casque. Ja tells me used to belong to a female hornbill. We were carrying our binoculars and field guides and on their asking showed what we do with them. Very visibly this is new for them and I without bothering of outputs and outcomes see them enjoying. I join in the fun. Outputs and outcomes are 2 terms that have confused countless people over the years, made locals feel they know their landscapes less than outsiders and empowered consultants.

Getting back to Khaiky we have yam with rice. I feel better. One of us doesn’t, he feels it is below his dignity to take only vegetables. As we get ready to move I spot the stunning Steppe Eagle. Am thrilled. As we walk we come across hill mynas, about 8 – 10 of them on a single tree, one of the more amazingly standing out combination of yellow and black. I am again asked whether we will take the river route or the short- cut? Why the question, I wonder, if we are to mark the boundary which is the river.

Possibly the biggest I have come across

Walking ahead I see paddy fields - large and currently vacant. How has the boundary been drawn? By whom? Who has determined the area? Why I am doing what I am? Why is it so easy and convenient to talk of relocation of people by the forest department and experts? There are too many complexities involved in terms of landuse (jhum, orchards, homesteads and else) and rights (ownership, usage, customary and else). Has the impact of people from across the border been figured in? Given the terrain and how the Forest Department functions will declaring The Wildlife Sanctuary on paper be of any use if the people of these villages are not taken along?

We reach Lopu; the tea is nice and I just stop short of asking for a second cup. NT asks me to come for a walk and we scout location for the Forest Beat Office. Can junior staff manage a Wildlife Sanctuary of this size with their seniors sitting in district headquarters? But then is it new for Mizoram where a Forest Range Officer was responsible for a Tiger Reserve? NT talks of a Forest Rest House for tourists and I wonder how many people from even Saiha have been here!

After having just arrived at a house

I come back to the biggest hall I have seen in long and discuss GPS locations, birds and the forms of village survey with Jo. There are issues I have learnt to live with.

As I walk back I wonder how this adventure is going to change me. Whether I will be able to share it on blog and beyond? Whether in doing so I will be able to do justice to the place and people?

As I sit down to write I sit down to write I feel eyes on me wondering what the hell does he write so much when all we have done is walk and walk. Others chat and 2 times tea and 2 times areca-nut make way to me.

Chatting late into the evening

After some time, and a little more, colleagues close windows around me and I take out my sleeping bag. The host, who was earlier concerned about how I would be able to face the chill night, gets pacified on seeing its size. 

Day Sixteen here.