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10/15/2005: "Green hope for Khonoma Phizo birthplace curbs hunting & boosts eco-tourism"


Phizo birthplace curbs hunting & boosts eco-tourism NISHIT DHOLABHAI The Telegraph
Khonoma, Oct. 13: At the birthplace of the legendary A.Z. Phizo, Nagaland is building a model for wildlife conservation.
With the harvest season approaching, the Khonoma Youth Organisation is busy issuing “permits” for hunting down select wild animals that are damaging standing crop.
In a society where hunting is a way of life, Khonoma’s method — of imposing fines on hunting — is paying rich dividends. “Earlier, people would just go in and kill the marauding animals. They were, of course, hunted for their meat. Now, all that has changed,” said local tourist guide M. Michael.
Earlier this year, the village youth “arrested” three men for hunting a bear. They were looking for its innards, used as medicine and sold at exorbitant rates.
The culprits thought they would merely pay a fine to the village youth organisation and be let off, only to book a profit on the haul later on.
But they were later handed over to the police for official action.
The Khonoma village youth have banned hunting, levying a fine of Rs 3,000 for killing each wild animal. “This time round, the village decided to make changes and imposed a fine on every individual who is found hunting, even if he has not killed any creature,” Michael added.
The surrounding forests are home to a variety of birds, including the state bird, Blythe’s tragopan, and animals like barking deer and wild boar.
The number of wild animals has dwindled to almost nil owing to indiscriminate hunting in the area. The case was similar to many other places in Nagaland, where hunting went on undeterred because ownership of forests is private or community-based.
Awareness has heralded many positive changes. Hunting has stopped and wildlife numbers have steadily risen.
However, villagers have begun to suffer, as wild boar raid the fields at night.
So the youth organisation introduced the rule that permission would have be sought from the Khonoma village youth organisation so that fields could be protected.
“Till now, we have received about 20 requests from people to hunt down marauding animals such as the boar,” said Aca Khate, secretary of the youth organisation.
But Khate conceded that for many villagers, this was an excuse to hunt and consume the meat of wild animals.
There is little which local environmentalists can do in this case. “We have achieved a level of awareness, but we have to wait for a longer duration so that the fruits can be reaped,” said a local youth and farmer, Vibu Iralu.
The village has a lot to offer tourists. Besides being the birthplace of Phizo, Khonoma is also known for its firm resistance to invading British forces in the last century.
The Green Village project, worth Rs 3 crore and granted by the Centre, is making waves. A circular road has been built within the village for tourists. All the roofs have been painted green.
Green trash-bins have been placed at regular intervals all around the village. Little children can be seen picking up garbage and putting them in the bins as they played.
“When we went through the Baral range for treks with tourist operators from Delhi, sightings of deer and bear confirmed our place among nature tourism destinations,” said Michael.
India, Myanmar agree on tackling rebel groups New Kerala
New Delhi: India and Myanmar Friday agreed to strengthen cooperation in tackling activities of armed rebel groups, smugglers and drug traffickers along their border.

A home ministry statement here said countering anti-India rebels based in Myanmar was one of the issues discussed in Yangon between Home Secretary V.K. Duggal and Myanmar's Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Brig-Gen Phone Swe.

Cooperation between security forces of the two countries in counter-insurgency operations has grown considerably in recent years, especially since the visit of Myanmar's military ruler General Than Shwe here last year.

For years, insurgent groups like the United Liberation Front of Asom, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang, the United National Liberation Front, the People's Liberation Army and the People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak have run their operations from bases and training camps on Myanmar's side of the 1,664-km border with India.

It is estimated that over 30 armed insurgent groups with a collective strength of over 15,000 are fighting Indian security forces in Myanmar's mountainous region between the Arakan range and the Irrawady.

The status of various infrastructure projects in Myanmar particularly in the road and power sectors on which the two countries have agreed to cooperate was also reviewed at this meeting.

The Myanmar side requested "sympathetic consideration" to their fishermen who had crossed the maritime boundary inadvertently.

On India's request, the Myanmar side agreed to look into the release of five Indian nationals who were arrested by the Myanmar army in June this year.

Duggal suggested that a working group at the level of the foreign office of the two governments and comprising members of their respective security forces could evolve a mechanism so that the innocent fishermen from both sides who inadvertently drifted into the territorial waters of the other side were not put to undue hardships.

All efforts would be made to ensure that the report of this working group was available before the next meeting.

Duggal also suggested that in future, issues likely to be discussed at the national level be exchanged between the two sides at least three months in advance so that the discussions could be more specific and fruitful.
Buses looted near Khuzama on NH-39
The Imphal Free Press

IMPHAL, Oct 13: Money in cash and goods belonging to passengers worth around Rs. 2 lakhs was looted from six inter-state passenger buses coming from Dimapur towards Imphal along national highway-39 near Khuzuma in Nagaland by some miscreants on the intervening night of October 11 and 12, a report said today.

According to the report some unidentified miscreants forced the passenger buses coming from Guwahati and Dimapur to stop at Khuzuma some 30 km before reaching Kohima from Dimapur side.

The miscreants looted money in cash, gold ornaments, wrist watches, mobile phones etc. from the passenger buses, the report said adding the total amount looted was around Rs. 2 to 3 lakhs.
Clash compels Karbi, Dimasa exodus to Nagaland New Kerala
Kohima: Continued ethnic clashes between the Karbis and Dimasas in Karbi Anglong district of Assam has led to exodus of people -- mostly women and children -- of both the tribes to Nagaland, especially to their respective tribe villages in and around Dimapur.

According to sources here today, people were still coming to take shelter in the Karbi and Dimasa villages in Dimapur district and the village councils were arranging for a temporary shelter for them.

It was reported that the some males have chosen to stay back in Karbi Anglong to guard their properties, while the women and children were sent to the safety of Dimapur shelters.

Meanwhile, two or three relief camps were reportedly set up at Dhansiri, near the border where the Dimasas affected by the recent violent incidents, have taken shelter.
Nations within nation States| Sanjib Baruah Hindustan Times
When a delegation of Nagas told Gandhi in June 1947 that the government had warned that there would be military sanctions against Nagas if they declared independence, Gandhi said “the government is wrong... No army will deprive you of your freedom... Those days are gone... I believe you all belong to one, to India. But if you say you won’t, no one can force you.” When asked if the new government would not force the Nagas to join India, Gandhi replied, “No, not if I am alive. I will go to Naga Hills and say that you will shoot me before you shoot a single Naga.”
In the real world of politics, Gandhi’s support for the Nagas did not amount to much. On the eve of Independence he was already outside the mainstream of the party coming to power. Had he lived for a few more years and had he followed up on his promise of opposing Indian military action, the Naga conflict might have taken a very different course. Nearly six decades later, the armed conflicts in Northeast India and the force used by successive governments to counter them make the Gandhian credo of non-violence seem like a fairy tale.
Gandhi’s methods — even if ‘utopian’ in this case — were based on deep convictions about politics and society. The exchange was in line with his ideas in Hind Swaraj, where he distinguished between ‘a genuine nation formed as community (praja) and a nation of individuals merely held together by state power (rashtra)’.’ His project was to build a different kind of polity.
It is possible to respond more creatively to the Naga proposal for a special federal relationship with India. Such an arrangement, Naga leader Thuingaleng Muivah says, can come “as close as possible” to the constitutional framework, even though he rules out a settlement entirely within the existing framework.
But the reaction to this is tepid. Policy-makers and public opinion are ambivalent about asymmetrical federalism — a federation where some units have different institutions and powers, and greater autonomy than others. A leading example of asymmetrical federalism is Canada, where Quebec enjoys more powers on certain subjects than the predominantly Anglophone provinces. Spain provides another example where ‘historical communities’ such as Catalonia, Basque Country and Galicia have more powers than other autonomous communities.
The Article 370 on Jammu and Kashmir gave the Indian system a significant element of asymmetrical federalism. But gradually all elements of this special autonomy were taken away and Kashmir became like any other state. Nagaland and a few other Northeastern states enjoy limited asymmetrical autonomy under Article 371. This has survived not because of active public support for such a dispensation but because of a lack of interest in what goes on in the region.
A special federal relationship can be built on the foundation of the asymmetrical federalism that already exists in Nagaland. It might even permit the settlement of the vexed issue of the integration of Naga-inhabited areas. There can be a second legislative chamber to represent Nagas living outside Nagaland. Such a chamber, elected by non-territorial constituencies, can recognise the trans-state nature of Naga identity. At the same time, this need not jeopardise the territorial integrity of Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
Canadian debates on Quebec provide an example of constitutional law dealing effectively with a demand for secession. After the narrow defeat of the ‘yes’ side in the 1995 Quebec referendum, the Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that a province has no right to secede unilaterally, but it did not try to close the secessionist option as illegal. Instead it set in motion a process by which the Constitution can respond to demands for secession. In 2000, the Canadian Parliament passed the Clarity Act, which gave it the right to determine if the language of a referendum for secession is unambiguous or if a clear majority favours secession.
When Gandhi met the Naga leaders in 1947, India was about to embark on the road to build a modern nation State. In today’s world absolutist notions of the sovereignty of nation States have given way to notions of relative sovereignty and of sharing. The present generation Naga leaders have shown remarkable statesmanship in getting their supporters to think of sovereignty outside the paradigm of independence.
A demand for independence need not be a matter of life and death for a nation. Options do exist, other than the use of raw power. Gandhi wanted India to be a model for a new type of polity and not simply another conventional nation State with an army, a flag, a national anthem and a national airline. It may be time to pick up his unfinished project and make the fiction of the consent of the governed a more active principle in our democratic federal polity.
The author is visiting professor, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi

Army wants ULFA to cease fire, disarm The Morung Express
DIMAPUR, OCT 13 (MExN): The army has reportedly conveyed to the Centre that its forthcoming peace talks with representatives of the ULFA would come under a cloud because it cannot suspend operations unless the terrorist group agrees to a ‘ground-level ceasefire’ in Assam, its cadres disarmed, and all cached weapons surrendered.
According to a defence based news portal the army was pressured to suspend anti-ULFA operations last week in the Dibru-Saikhowa national park because the Centre was keen to talk to ULFA’s nominee, the Peoples’ Consultative Group, and the army says that in this period, the group smuggled huge consignments of weapons via Mizoram, Meghalaya and the Assam border into the state.
It was reported that the army had launched a massive combing operation with helicopter gunships, and in the process had recovered three big weapons’ consignments in Karbi Anglong, Tinsukhia and Dibrugarh, but it suspects almost as much remains hidden, which the ULFA would use against the security forces in the event the talks fail, as they are expected to, because the terror group is unshakeable on the "sovereignty" question.
Military sources were quoted as saying that the army wants the Centre to convey to the ULFA leadership that violence and talks cannot go hand in hand, that they have to agree to an NSCN-IM-type full scope ceasefire, and for the present, the remaining hidden arms have to be given up, failing which, the operations would continue with full fury.
Nagaland 2020, a vision: PART 2 Morung Express News October 13
KOHIMA: By the year 2020, it is possible to see a developed Nagaland—with the population under control, the economy growing at accelerated pace, infrastructure such as transport, communication and power improved to modern levels and qualitative health care being provided to the people.
Another pertinent area to be addressed is the tourism sector. An annual intake of even 10,000 tourists would have a multiplier effect for the entire tourist industry in the state adding to the generation of wealth and employment.
By 2020, the communities would be actively investing in upgrading, modernizing and managing their schools. The government’s role, after having provided all the physical requirements or 100 percent coverage of all villages and hamlets by primary schools may become focused on key areas like policy, syllabi, quality education, training, innovative and linkages with new technology.
By 2020, Nagaland would have 100 percent trained teachers, greatly adding to the quality of education being imparted to young children. By 2020 it is envisaged that the literacy in Nagaland would be nearly universal. Enrolment at the elementary stage would be universal, while the drop-out rates reduced to below 10 percent.
As per the report, by 2020, all the district hospitals would have been upgraded and made autonomous on the lines of the decision taken recently for the Naga hospital, Kohima. Side by side, there will be increasing investment in private hospitals, clinics and nursing homes, which will not only increase the health care coverage but also add to the quality of health services.
By 2020, it is possible to see a healthy Nagaland with people having a life expectancy of 80 years and beyond but with a population growth rate contained to below 2 percent, while ensuring that children under age 15 years and around 15 to 20 years get the best possible options in life, the report states.
Higher education in Nagaland by 2020 would be technology driven and focus on the growing scientific temperament among the youth of Nagaland.
The net effect of growth in the agriculture sector and the industrial sector would trigger substantial activities in the tertiary sector, particularly under Services by 2020.
New hydro and thermal projects would greatly enhance quantitative availability of power in Nagaland, the report states adding the communication process of power envisions village communities to generate their own power requirements through adoption of micro, mini and small power generation systems based on hydro power and biomass. "This could revolutionize rural Nagaland and the agricultural economy, besides, addressing to a great extent, the problem of educated unemployed", the report added.
People demand final solution to militancy problem
Imphal, Oct 13 (UNI): The people of Manipur are demanding an end to the militancy problem that has ravaged the state since the last few decades.
After United National Liberation Front (UNLF) chairman R K Sanayaima offered talks with the Centre and lay down arms, various organisations in the state have organised meetings to demand a final solution to the protracted problems of militancy.
The UNLF chairman had also offered to lay down arms provided, a UN Peace Keeping Force was maintained in Manipur and plebiscite held to take the view of the people.
Though various Central leaders have opposed the proposal of plebiscite, saying that many organisations have been organising meetings on the issue since the last few weeks and that may influence the people.
The United Committee, Manipur, All Manipur Students’ Union, National Identity Protection Committee, Manipur Peace and Integrity Council, All Manipur Women’s Social Reformation and Development Samaj and other organisations along with local bodies. are organising meetings to discuss the issue of militancy and means to resolve it.
The orgasisers have started eliciting the view of the people in the hill areas. Meetings at jiribam, near the Manipur-Assam border, Moreh, Chandel district and other places would also be organised tomorrow.



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