Arunachal Pradesh’s tribal village welcomes tourists for the first time in its history
Arunachal Pradesh’s tribal village welcomes tourists for the first time in its history
Nibode ji suku is a place that you cannot find on google. The remote village in the hilly Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh is situated at an altitude of 600 meters above sea level. (Changlang is 25 km from the Assam border.) Nibode-ji Suku is so remote and unexplored that when its first tourists recently arrived, the entire village, with a population of 150-200, came to welcome the group with song, dance and home. Came up for Cooked food, including rice cakes and fire-roasted corn.
Tourists traveling from Miao to Nibode Ji Suku in Mahindra Thar were a part of the Trans Arunachal Drive curated by the State Tourism Board to showcase the improvement of roadways and last-mile connectivity. Nibod is 150 km from Miao, a subdivision in Changlang district and the nearest town with road connectivity.
Road to Village | Photo Credit: Kavya Saxena
Earlier Nibode ji Suku’s ties were cut off due to lack of road. To reach Miao, locals will trek through Namdapha Tiger Reserve, a biodiversity hotspot in the Eastern Himalayas. Of the 150 people living in Nobod, only two have mobile phones.
Kavya Saxena, one of the drivers of the team that drives the village, is also the state president for rural tourism in Arunachal Pradesh (selected by the Women’s Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry). She says the 150-km drive from Miao, which normally takes around two hours, took the team of expert drivers six hours. “The roads are extremely rocky, with landslides here and there,” she says, adding that “the Arunachal Pradesh government wanted the team of drivers to visit Nibode ji Suku so that tourists could explore the area in future.”
Village Women Decorating Hand Made Jewelry | Photo Credit: Kavya Saxena
Kavya says that the local people live in the middle of the forest, and depend on agriculture and forest for livelihood and resources. The villagers also do archery. They grow their own food, their main crop being rice. All of them belong to the Yobin tribe and follow Buddhism. There is still no electricity in the village and no schools in the area, people can speak Hindi in addition to their local tribal language.
“There is no development, but there is no poverty either. The people are farmers and self-sufficient. There is a very rich tribal culture,” says Kavya, adding that the local people are also very fashionable. “They weave their own clothes and make their own jewelry. Hemp cloth may be everywhere in the world now: but the people of Nibode-ji Suku have always been wearing clothes made from hemp cloth. “For a quiet little village, this is far ahead of the trend.