Morung Express Feature
Umrangso | November 26
It is November 19, last day of the 2-day Falcon Festival being held in the Umrangso area of Dima Hasao (NC Hills) district of Assam. Situated on the banks of a NEEPCO (North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited) reservoir, a Golf field—running into acres of grasslands next to the waters—inaugurated by the Dima Hasao Autonomous District Council in 2013 is the venue. A large stage sits at the centre, with little shops located at a distance. Tents have been set
“The cows maintain this field,” says Manbahadur Magar (62), Gaon Bura of New Tumbung village, as we wait for the Amur Falcons to appear. 400-500 cows from neighbouring villages graze the field throughout the year, maintaining it without cost to the Council.
The fields, as well as the reservoir, were, in parts, the original Tumbung village till 1976 when the Kopili Hydro Electric Project came into existence. It drowned the hot springs as well as some villages; NEEPCO compensated them for it. The Umrangso area, located 114 km away from Haflong on the Assam-Meghalaya border, is home to an eclectic community of majority Karbi, followed by Dimasa, Khasi, Nepali, etc.
Having discovered that Amur Falcons visit the area during their annual migration west, the Blue Hills Society, an NGO working with the Wildlife Trust of India, started work with the locals to raise awareness on preserving the birds and promoting alternate livelihoods through a festival for locals. In 2015, the first edition of the Falcon Festival was held.
“The Karbis used to celebrate killing the falcons traditionally,” laughs Magar at the changing times he has been witness to. Now, the Council has put pressure on forest guards at crucial hunting spots to stop the killing of the birds. “This year there was no killing,” notes Magar who, along with his villagers, set up New Tumbung in 1983.
Local forest officer, Huazegaing Newme (45), concurs and says “the birds are not delicious anyway.” “They are too fatty and taste horrible. I tried little once,” he admits, as he walks us through a pine reserve near the Amur Falcon roosting site at the reservoir, where they appear every year between October 17 and November 27.
Newme has worked at the job 20 years. It was the Blue Hills Society along with the locals, he says, that began the work towards conservation.
Marginalizing the locals
“The whole idea of the Falcon Festival was to celebrate with the locals to protect the bird, and promote eco-tourism to sustain the loss of any livelihood that the birds brought,” said Dr. Amit Phonglo, former president of the Blue Hills Society.
In 2017, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Dima Hasao Autonomous District Council took up the responsibility to organize the Festival. While local students’ bodies were involved, the villages that actively maintain the area through the year were left aside.
“First of all, they have organized no campaign around the Festival to preserve the Falcons,” laments local BJP mandal president, Joybash Warisa.
Then, “they litter the field miserably that locals are left to clean up,” notes Warisa, listing what he calls “violations.”
Unlike previous years, “They came from Haflong without any information to the locals. They have also set up a Falcon Committee collecting tax for every vehicle that enters the area. None of this will come to the villagers,” he says in the presence of the New Tumbung GB and his friends who nod along. The locals are neither included in the organizing committee nor the ‘Falcon Committee’ on a piece of land which they previously jhummed or collected firewood from, and now graze their cows on.
While the day time sees little Festival action at the venue, mostly used by campers, the night is abuzz with rock bands, Miss Grand Falcon contest and other shows. Production is top notch. A drone camera flies through the venue at night, fire crackers burst into the sky and light beams are visible from kilometers away.
GB Manbahadur Magar chips in. “What are we going to do with the thang-thang music? If they had put us on the organizing committee, we would have put local cultural shows during daytime for locals to enjoy.”
Present president of the Blue Hills Society, Joshringdao Phonglo, acknowledges that “without the locals, the entire concept is lost.”
Naya party, Naya sarkar, Naya candidate
The bitter taste is slowly spreading into something larger as disaffection towards the BJP-led Council has grown over the last year.
The Umrangso area faces “language problem, is badly connected by roads and phone network,” says Warisa. If visitors start “destroying” the area, it would “lead to our ruin.”
“The Council has not paid salaries to its staff for 13 months now. From peon to officers, no one is satisfied with the Council,” he adds without being asked. The Council, people feel, is not responding to their needs.
Another BJP worker extrapolates. “The BJP came to power but through those who defected from other parties; they are old bodies wearing new shirts. The Council does not follow Party principles. We need a change of leadership, only then it makes sense for us to work or vote for the BJP. Naya (new) party and naya sarkar should also mean naya candidate,” the worker maintains.
As the BJP attempts new strategies in the North East region, small storms of dissent are rising amidst local workers. Drawn from the grassroots, these workers joined the BJP for change. While high hopes remain from the Party, the Autonomous Council’s actions and apathy have come under the spotlight.
The local stand on the Falcon Festival is a trailer to the growing disaffection.
