Help Tourism

Pakke is a pristine and most stunning landscapes teeming with some of the most secretive and rare species of fauna and flora. This relatively new Pakke Tiger Reserve which had witnessed rampant hunting and felling a decade ago has now registered a commendable turn around with the initiative of the forest department and the local communities. In a significant move in September 2006, heads of sixteen villages had passed a resolution listing various penalties for wildlife violations and following which the villagers have been keeping a strict vigil in the reserve. The 16-member committee has been working for protection of the Pakke Tiger Reserve in conjunction with the forest department. This initiative is very innovative in approach and a marked departure from the conventional practice of conservation since, the local people, mainly comprising Nyishi tribe, respects the Gaon Burahs (village chiefs) for their wisdom and traditional values, their role is important as they can persuade people to use the natural resources sustainably.

Pakke Tiger Reserve, situated in East Kameng district of the Western part of Arunachal Pradesh with it’s headquarter in Seijusa, falls within the Eastern Himalaya Biodiversity Hotspot. It is home to over 2000 species of plants, 300 species of birds, 40 species of mammals, 30 species of amphibians and 36 species of reptiles. Many species of the flora and fauna are globally threatened, and PTR is one of the last remaining strongholds left for these species.

The area can be truly termed as ‘Hornbill country’, as four species of Honbill are found here. The endangered White Winged Wood Duck is not uncommon too.

Pakke Jungle Camp is a community-based tourism model jointly implemented and run by Help Tourism and the local tribal self-help conservation group named Ghora-Aabhe. The project is supported by forest department and a Bangalore-based conservation NGO named Nature Conservation Foundation and, the primary goal of the tourism project is to drive and step up conservation and ensure community ownership.

Spread over a richly forested land, the Jungle Camp is a cluster of four local style cottages on stilts made interestingly by the local artisans with local eco friendly materials such as bamboo, thatch, cane brakes and wood. Each hut has a Spartan but cozy and comfortable double –bedded room and a small verandah overlooking the forest canopy. The thatched and spacious dining area provides a very relaxing atmosphere and one can spend time watching birds and butterflies within the vicinity of the camp premises. There is a common bath cum toilet area consisting of two western style baths and toilets each with running cold shower.

Elephants pay visit to the surrounding jungle of our campsite frequently, so there is security fencing at the camp site to keep the curious pachyderms away to a safe distance while allowing them to roam freely in their own territory. Several nature trails and soft trekking routes have been carefully developed or identified around the Jungle Camp to provide our guests with an unforgettable wilderness experience.

PTR is a paradise for viewing and photographing four species of hornbills. The experience of watching hornbills flying to their roost is a must for every wildlife enthusiast. Every evening, just before sunset you will be lucky to witness more than a hundred hornbills flying above the horizon to their roost sites. In addition, PTR harbours other specialties such as the Ibisbill and the White-winged Wood Duck. Nestled among hills and criss-crossed by rivers, Khari is only 13 km away from the park headquarters at Seijusa. White-winged Wood Ducks are often sighted in Khari lake, which is a 10 km trek from Khari beat.

A well planned visit to PTR should coincide with some of the local festivities to have a richer experience of the local tradition and customs. Every year, from 24th to 27th of February, Nyokum yullo, the harvest festival is celebrated by the Nyishi tribe. During Nyokum, all sections of the Nyishi community get together celebrate this festival pompously at Bhalukpong and Seijosa. The mithun is a semi-wild bovid which plays an extremely important role in the cultural, economic and social life of people around PTR. Mithuns are sacrificed and offered to the Nyokum goddess. In Bhalukpong on the 4th and 5th of April, the Adhi tribe celebrates Mopin, the harvest festival. Mithuns are also sacrificed on this occasion. To greet each other, people smear a paste of rice on each other’s faces. Similar to the Nyokum and Mopin festivals, the Miji community of the Tipi area celebrate Chindang on the 14th and 15th of October.

If you do miss the local festivities, do not miss a household visit to see the local handicrafts being made. Members of most households craft products for personal use and therefore handicrafts are not available on a commercial scale. It is incredible to see everyday accessories like market bags beeing still made of cane and bamboo. The Nyishi oryok (a carry knife), galles (hand woven wrap around skirts), naraa (cane woven bags for men), igin (cane woven baskets for women) and dharees (bamboo mats) are some of the craft specialties of the area. These handicrafts take many months to finish since they are made intricately with an eye for detail.

November to April is the usual tourism season. PTR has a subtropical climate with cold weather from November to March. The temperature ranges from 12° C to 36° C. It receives rainfall predominantly from the south-west monsoon (May – September) and north-east monsoon (November – April). October and November are relatively dry. May and June are the hottest months. Humidity levels reach 80 % during the summer.

How does the sun set? It goes down into the sea. It hides behind the mountain. And, what if you do not allow it the space of the sea or the privacy of the mountain? It just dissolves in the sky.

Trust me. I saw the crimson ball look like a half-eaten cookie in minutes and before you could make sense of the changing tones of the silver slivers criss-crossing the valley, the cookie was just a speck, and soon it was gone!

Sipping tea at the bamboo balcony of the dining hall at the Dibang Valley Jungle Camp, I watch the orange orchard surrounding the resort plunge into darkness. And, in the remoteness of far away across the criss-cross of rivers, where I had presumed nobody must have set foot ever, I see flickering lights. One. Two. Three! About seven or eight, in all. So, there are people living there, I wonder.

How did they reach there? Did their flight from Kolkata land at Dibrugarh after an inordinate delay? Were they forced to abandon their onward journey—much after crossing Tinsukia— to spend the night at the Dihing Jungle Camp in Dibrugarh? Did they also cross the Brahmaputra at Dolaghat with their cars on the boats — yes, you read it right; cars, buses and trucks, are all ferried across the river in boats. And, the only people to feel surprised or scared even when the river is on a spate, are tourists— like we did? Will they go back to the “mainstream” that I came from after the three-day Reh festival? Stupid questions clutter my mind for I am full of disbelief as to how can people be living there their daily lives — buying toothpastes and taking their children to school — in a place so remote; where development has turned its back on.  

As I sip the sunset with my first evening tea at Help Tourism’s Dibang Valley Jungle Camp, I realise it is this zeal for life of people living in such difficult conditions that makes Arunachal special, awe-inspiring. And the festivals are just a way of celebrating this spirit.

It’s the first day of the 43rd Reh festival (celebrated between Feb 1 and 3) of the Idu Mishmi tribe here at Roing. Amounting to not more than 12,000 members, Idu Mishmi tribe is one of the smallest sub-tribes of Arunachal (and also India); their language and culture, for obvious reasons, in desperate attempt to survive the onslaught of modernism.

An otherwise family affair, the Reh festival is also celebrated as a community programme, participated by all the members of the tribal village. While yew, the signature brew of the Idu Mishmis, is in the air—that’s the welcome drink you are treated to everywhere— the whole town is a riot of colours with all the people out in their finest traditional attires. This is the time of the year when everybody comes home from wherever they could be studying or working. “This is one time when the tribe comes together,” Lokha Elapra, law student from Delhi, tells me in between nibbling at a roasted intestine, twirled rather crudely to a long bamboo stick and cooked in the community kitchen fire.

In the day, the programmes are mostly traditional with local songs and dances being performed by the youths. The days are followed by not-to-traditional evenings where the youths come together to have fun over yew and pork delicacies. Be prepared to tap your feet to the beats of Idu Mishmi rap number—one of the many ways by which the youths are trying to popularise the local language which has taken a serious beating to Hindi over the years. After a round of the festival, I decide to spend the evening by the fireside, where the community head priest, Igu Haita, is performing the Igu ritual, chanting mantras to drive away evil spirits from the village. I am taken over by the sheer antiquity of his appearance and the ambience of the room whose walls are decorated exploits at hunting—weapons and skulls of mithuns.

Celebrated after the harvest season, Reh is the time when families come together. Especially the relatives and kins of the women members of the family are invited. Gifts are exchanged and guests are treated to mithun and pork delicacies.

It was a sea of flesh—and I am not exaggerating one bit—at the Mayu village, where a community kitchen had been set up. At one end pig flesh was being chopped into cubes, all piled up to form a small hill. Busy hands skewered them in thin bamboo sticks from all sides, while the job of some people was simply to ferry the chopped meat to the fireplace. In two massive cauldrons, right at the middle of the square open area, the cooking was done by able-bodied men who could ladle the boiling concoction without much difficulty. Meme was being made by cooking rice with pork and blood, with dried bamboo shoot, dried ginger and chilly power as spices.

At the other corner was the fish section, populated by largely women, for those who do not eat pork. Dried pond fish, instead of pork, is cooked with rice to prepare the aaku. The yew, which is brewed from rice, is what you wash down your meal with. The meal is followed by more singing and dancing.

And it is not just the experience of a tribal lifestyle, but associated adventure that gives this festival tour a different dimension. And the adventure lies in not only manoeuvring long distances in back-breaking drives on narrow roads and crossing the bridge-less rivers with cars perched precariously in boats. Snug inside a sleeping bag, in a tent set up in the resort lawns, giving company to crickets all night long is no less thrilling. And though I don’t get to sight it– the bird that is unique to this region, a major attraction for bird-watchers across the globe– I quite feel like Mishmi Wren-Babbler!

Article by Anuradha Sharma

“With Volun-Tourism we envision an enlightened and empowered rural India where local communities are able to create conditions to fulfill their aspiration and earn a respectful livelihood without leaving their villages, overcoming barriers of class, cast, gender, ethnicity and religion.” 

The year 2010 has been very special for Help Tourism as the organization completed its 20 years in Responsible Tourism. It was indeed an eventful journey punctuated by joy and sorrow. We salute all the members of the team and extended family of Help Tourism and our guests and partners who gave us support and sustenance. We take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to conservation and communities by practicing tourism as the religion of mankind. 

Despite many challenges the organization successfully launched several new initiatives, projects and programmes in 2010. 

The WTD (World Tourism Day) Yatra was a grand success with several very fruitful programmes in Dhaka and Paharpur to connect the heritages of Bangladesh and India. The Indian delegation was lead by internationally famous filmmaker Goutam Ghosh. 

Two Peace Parks were established in 2010: Guru Padmasambhava Peace Park in Ultapani in Manas Biosphere Reserve in Assam and Lalon Fakir Peace Park in Chilapata in North Bengal. 

The annual Nature and Community festival at Chilapata witnessed record attendance of all the local and regional stakeholders. 

The Samsing Jaldhaka Orange Festival  received overwhelming response with more than 5000 participants who presented a spontaneous and spectacular show for two days and mesmerized the audience and guests. 

The ‘Waste-free Destinations’ campaign continued in 2010 with enthusiastic participation of the local grass route NGOs, travel trade, local traders, lodges and home stay operators, Forest department and local administration in Manas Biosphere Reserve in Assam. 

With generous support from the state Forest and Tourism departments, Help Tourism introduced full-fledged nature-based and cultural tours in Tripura. 

We along with our Nagaland team leader Angulie Meyase assisted celebrity birders Bikram Grewal, Sumit Sen, S.Ramakrishnan, Bano Haralu and Government of Nagaland in conducting the first systemic Ornithological survey in Nagaland. 

We also supported the research and photo-documentation projects in Bengal and Northeast India for the publication of the book named Forts and Palaces of India published by Om Books International, written by Amita Baig and designed by Alpana Khare with photographs by Joginder Singh. 

An extensive training programme was organized by us at The Swiss Hotel, Darjeeling for the Project Leaders of nature-based rural tourism initiatives in East and Northeast India. 35 Project Leaders received training on hospitality basics, rural tourism management and operations, community based tourism, adventure tourism, waste management and conservation of natural resources. 

Help Tourism received the prestigious “HSBC-TOFT Wildlife and Tourism Initiative of the Year” award. Our Dihing River Camp was awarded “The Most Innovative Tourism Product” at the 80th TTF (Travel and Tourism Fair) in Kolkata. 

The modern India is emerging as the second largest growing economic power in the world though sadly, despite the strong economic growth, huge domestic capacity and service potential, India still witnesses alarming disparity between the rich and poor and poverty and backwardness in the rural areas where the communities are ready to sprout with even a little encouragement and support. Tourism in general too has still a long way to walk to take a turnaround and recognize Responsible Tourism as a key to reduce the disparity and drive conservation efforts and help communities to establish their ownership on local resources. 

To much to our delight, a new Mantra of Responsible Tourism is increasingly proving its worth as a level maker by poverty alleviation and bringing valuable resources and benefits to the rural communities. Volun-Tourism as it is commonly known is the demonstration of the noble way of sharing and exchanging knowledge and resources between the guests and the hosts and giving maximum back to the people and destination while enjoying an inspirational holiday experience. It opens up the global door through the local window. 

Based on the need of the local communities in the destinations and the various skills possessed by the Volun-Tourists, Help Tourism has introduced well-researched and custom-made Volun-Tourism holidays and projects in several villages in East & Northeast India over the years and has already gained the trust and confidence of the communities. 

Through our projects and tours Volun-Tourists have been able to cut across all geographical, language and cultural barriers and have adopted villages lying adjacent to the Protected areas and Heritage sites – from the mangroves of Sunderbans to the remote mountains in Mishmi hills and Namdapha in Arunachal Pradesh, from the tropical forest of Bengal Dooars and Assam to the high altitude ecosystem in Neora Valley and Sikkim,  by bringing support to various important fields such as education, self-help enterprises, sustainable bio-farming, low cost and pollution free energy, rain water harvesting, medical assistance, small-scale handicraft business, organic food product, waste management, home-hospitality business, wildlife conservation, creation of community buffer forest and biological corridors; documentation of indigenous culture, language and folklores; survey and monitoring of endangered plants and wildlife. 

With Volun-Tourism we envision an enlightened and empowered rural India where local communities are able to create conditions to fulfill their aspiration and earn a respectful livelihood without leaving their villages, overcoming barriers of class, cast, gender, ethnicity and religion. 

May we declare the mission of Help Tourism for 2011:
RURAL ENLIGHTENMENT THROUGH VOLUN-TOURISM! 

We solicit your blessings, support and participation to help us establish benchmarks in Responsible Tourism and influence rest of the globe with our humble mission. 

We wish you all a great, peaceful and prosperous New Year ahead. 

With deep regards, admiration, appreciation and love. 

Help Tourism Family. 

31st December 2010, India.

When we set up a new project like the Great Indian Elephant Safari in a remote area like Eastern Arunachal Pradesh, we are always a bit fidgety when it finally goes live. Receiving a feedback like the one from Leslie than feels like balm:

“The trip with Raj was amazing, more than anything we could have hoped for. Raj is an amazing man, I am so grateful you put us together. I am so glad the 2 people that backed out did so, the trip could never have happened the way it did if they had been there.
The [Pangsau] pass was closed when we got in the area, but we were able to visit with the Commanding Officer of the Indian Army Rifles that control the check points & he phoned ahead. At each check point, soldiers met us with tea & wanted to visit. The road was a mess which made it all the more memorable so John , Raj, & me were going to hike to the pass the last 5 miles. But several Indian soldiers went back & got the stuck vehicle out & we went on getting stuck several more times but managed each time with the help of an Indian soldier that went up with us.
Everyone was so very interested in John’s dad having been in the area during WW2, the adventure just never stopped. The elephants were great, I could have stayed with them for days, took lots of notes & got more info on elephant management from Raj & the mahouts than could ever be found on the internet.”