It is believed that Nagas have occupied Nagaland in the fourteenth century. Our fore-fathers made terrace on the fringes of mountains and hills for jhum cultivation. Terraces were made in the foothills and plain areas for paddy cultivation. They set aside thick forest areas of mountains and hills undisturbed. Thus, they practiced land use system since time immemorial and passed it to us. And many Naga villages hold fast to this system till today. Almost every Naga village has its forest area and the people lives on the cradle of nature, then.
Every Naga village was sovereign, independent as it is now having its own social set up, religion, culture, jurisdiction etc. Unless it was for the construction of village bridge, gate, dormitory bed, log drum, pounding table, wine drum etc., nobody went into the thick forest and fell trees out of greed. Thus they had a strong love of their forest wealth. It was their intention and consensus will to preserve, conserve and protect the forest of their country. Since head hunting was a sport and trophy for them, then, most of the Naga villages were established on hill tops for safety and easy access of watching of attacking enemies from the village. They never sell out their forest land to the aggressors at the cost of war.
They were self dependent and sufficient except for salt. They travelled to outside world for trade and commerce for salt, thread, iron, ornaments, sea shells etc. and go to Assam, Sylhet (Bangaladesh), Culcutta, Bombay and to the extent of Sri. Lanka (Ceylon) all without the expense of their forest wealth. Indeed, it is said that they produced garlic, some powders, spices and etc. and do business.
At other times they work hard with their family. It was a pride, prestige and honour to offer feasts of merits freely to all villagers, relatives from neighbouring villages. In all feasts, festivals and religious rituals Nagas use wild banana leaves and other leaves as cups and wrappers for rice bear and meats respectively. They wore varieties of beautiful wild flowers on their head, headgears and earrings etc. Thus in many of their folk songs, love songs, ballads and poetry names of some particular place, trees, animals, birds, flowers, butterfly and stone are mentioned. With full enthusiasm girls with their boyfriends collects edible wild vegetables, brooms, decorative items during the day and freely distributed them to neighbours and relatives of both boys and girls partakers and old widowed/ widowers for use. Such is a culture so sweet and beautiful that binds the society together for good was practiced then.
Nagas are fond of hunting and regard it as a sport. During dry seasons, festivals and gena days they go for hunting. All males of both young and old take part in this. Those hunters who killed wild animals like deer, rein-deer, boar, bear, porcupine, elephant and etc. never enjoy the flesh of his kill. His family, relatives and friends will have feast with his kill whereas he will be given to eat a bird or chicken provided freely by family or friends. Usually hunting was seasonal and for enjoyment only. The objective of hunting was not to exterminate any wild life species but for sport. To be honest our present generation have already destroyed our forest and its habitations to a great extent. It is high time for us to conserve, protect the remaining forests and vegetation for future generations. It is important to note that the forests and its habitats don’t belong to the present generation alone. Keeping this in view, some villages have already started community initiated nature conservation projects. In order to strengthen, encourage and support this endeavour, Foundation for Ecological Security India & NEPED Nagaland had engineered and conducted series of consultative meetings at Mokokchung and Kohima and finally set up Nagaland Community Conserved Areas’ Forum (NCCAF) and officially launched it in their presence along with Forest Department Officials in the year 2015.
The main aim of NCCAF is to facilitate better co-ordination among members of Community Conserved Areas and to assists, support, encourage CCA’s promotion and development. The forum has been inviting CCA’s to join it and request other villages to start nature conservation programmes in their respective areas. Presently, around twenty CCA‘s have registered with NCCAF in Nagaland representing all districts except one district.
As land and its natural resources are the property of the public (i.e indigenous inhabitant tribes) of Nagaland let us rise up and revibrate Nagaland’s rich nature and its habitats by conserving and protecting it before it’s too late. So that conservation of natural resources i.e. flora and fauna of Nagaland attain greater heights. Then, Nagaland shall become a “More beautiful place” to live in.
Khriekhotuo Mor Chairman, Nagaland Community Conserved Area’s Forum, Kohima
