From doublebulb@YAHOO.COM Sun May 22 12:53:26 2005
Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 00:27:13 -0700
From: Pritam Baruah 
To: nathistory-india@Princeton.EDU
Subject: Tortoises saved by traditional beliefs but for how long

Yet another story on how some interesting local
traditional beliefs saved tortoises from disappearing
but slowly those beliefs are fading away (with the
newer generations). This puts these tortoises in new
danger.

www.assamtribune.com

Demand to declare Hajong lake as tortoise sanctuary

Monsun Singh
HAJONG, May 16 ^× Hajong lake a unique tortoise habitat
situated 80 kilometres north of Haflong in the remote
Langting-Mupa reserve forest in North Cachar Hills
district is the only natural tortoise habitat in Assam
where some endangered terraqueous reptile species of
north east India are still living in a hostile
condition of ever growing human intervention in their
habitats.

On reaching the lake one would wonder why the lake is
still perfectly sheltering dozens of tortoise. The
reason perhaps is the arduous marshland and thick
jungles surrounding the lake and the giant trees and
thick bushes teeming in the lake water made it
physically very difficult to ferret these sluggish
imperiled creatures specially in the summer. However,
a story which is more than a legend and the
mythological belief among the villagers nearby to some
extent also helping the animal, according to which
once upon a time the Hajong was a prosperous village
but one day when the villagers caught one old python
living in the village underground and killed it for
the meat the sin of killing the python became a curse
and the village on that night sank into a lake and
those eating the meat became tortoises except one old
virtuous woman who left the village as she was
cautioned in her dream to leave the village as she did
not eat the python meat who latter spread the news to
other villages.

This credence of not killing innocent animals and the
Hajong tortoises are not mere animals but human
beings. This belief is still alive among the people
living around the Hajong lake for which even today
villagers nearby perform indigenous puja^Òs by offering
goats or chicken to cajole the jungle Gods to save
villagers from any problems of Hajong. Though the
people remember the story but nowadays no one really
canes about it threatening the existence of these rare
creatures. Gronon Kemprai, Gaonbura of the nearby
Purnahajoing village inform that the things are not
quite as same as in earlier days for to most of the
present generation killing a tortoise means nothing
and incidents of poachers coming from faraway villages
to kill the animal is also quite common.

According to Kethanon Bathari, executive member NC
Hills Autonomous Council ^Ñthough the forest officials
are closely monitoring the lake and gaurd it from any
poachers still during the winter when water goes down
sometime people take advantage of the situation and
kill the tortoise as there is no fence surrounding the
lake^Ò. He further added that the district authorities
at present had taken many schemes to protect the place
from any further damage. Bathari is also actively
engaged in the area and launched an awareness campaign
among the villagers about the significance of the lake
and the benefit of preservation of wildlife. However,
a couple of years back researchers from Bombay Natural
Historical Society had visited the place and it was
proposed to be upgraded to a ^Ñtortoise sanctuary^Ò but
it is still reeling under the apathy of concerned
authorities.

D Zaman, DFO, NC Hills told this correspondent that
the lake is home to more than 500 tortoises and the
numbers are decreasing day by day due to
indiscriminate killing, encroachment and lack of
proper protection measures. He informed that district
authorities have taken various schemes like
construction of park, roads surrounding the lake,
watch tour etc. for the place to make it a tourist
attraction spot and a proposal under RSVY (Rashtriya
Sama Vikash Yojna) has also been sent for the purpose.

At a time when the authorities are making plans to
make the Hajong lake a tourist spot, like many other
nature lovers, Bankim Haflongbar a member of ^ÑOASIS^Ò,
the only NGO actively working for conservation and
protection of wild life in NC Hills strongly argues
that since the Hajong is a natural virgin habitat so
it should not be disturbed by any concrete structure.
He feels, encouraging tourism without considering
ecology of the area will permanently damage the place
and at the same time remoteness, bad roads and lack of
infrastructure in the area is also not fit for the
tourist in the present situation. He however, added
that instead of making it a tourist spot the
authorities should try to protect the place by
upgrading it to a ^Ñtortoise sanctuary^Ò which will
definitely help in preservation of the place for study
and research purpose without destabilising its
existing ecology.




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