Thepfulhouvi Solo
Nagaland is pleasantly blessed with very interesting uncommon Species of natural vegetation and objects: the beautiful Rhododendron –a usually small and often straggling- is often very big and upright tall Tree in Nagaland: Nagaland has the tallest Rhododendron Tree in the World;
Bamboos are usually slender and Tree-like standing Plants: in Nagaland we have toe-size and pencil-size climbing bamboos that twins up taller than huge Tropical Mountain Oaks;
Researchers from Kerela have located -usually in hot climate- Cane, known as Rattan- in high elevations of Pawna mountain Range. Canes are rope-like in shape and long in length but Nagaland has giant Canes the size of a Telephone Post standing unsupported like a tree with leaves looking like a Betel nut Tree.
This Writer recently saw a huge Sandstone Boulder, unusually white, with the figure of a big heart of black stone formation in the middle of one of its whitish sides.
Less and less Villagers are doing Jhum Cultivation in Nagaland today; the whole western side of the Satakha-Zünheboto mountain range, viewed while traveling from Kohima to Mokokchung, shows very little Jhum Cultivation and the whole area is coming to be covered with jungle. It may be because most of the Sümi Villagers have migrated to Western Sümi Areas, or it may be that many of the Villagers have taken to other easier forms of livelihoods.
Except the Mon-Tuensang Area, Nagaland is abandoning Jhum Cultivation like old Garments.
The ground reality today in Nagaland is that areas of earning a livelihood have slightly increased and Jhum Cultivation is the least of the preferences. The result is that today Vegetation Cover over Nagaland has definitely increased on the Jhumlands.
There is however Experts a plenty in India; the Forest Survey of India (FSI) and Agriculture Scientists, still get PhD on the pet Thesis of “Jhum Cultivation Responsible For Loss of Forest Cover In The North East”. It is true Jhum Cultivation does remove natural Vegetation but of the North East it is described as if the Sky is falling when only a few Chestnuts fell down.
Once, decades ago, while in the Department, the FSI gave a Report showing the whole of the Intangki as “Barren Area”.
I sent off an immediate ‘Thank you Letter’ for showing the Game Sanctuary as ‘barren area’; immediately the erred Experts covered their expert lapse! Another time a friendly Superintendent of the Power Department brought a very thick Book of the Likimro Project for Environment Clearance. I opened the Pages of the Book to see the forested Catchments-Areas and was surprised to find the Züngki River water shown as flowing up! I poked a joke at the a little embarrassed distinguished Superintendent and said: “It appears the Power generated in the Likimro Hydro Station will flow backwards because you have shown the Züngki River water as flowing up backwards”. Immediately he looked at the reproduced Map with his eyes opened as big as he could and said he will get it corrected and bring back. He did not come the second time! Experts and Scientist too make carelessly silly mistakes sometimes.
The monstrously Biggest Tree in the ‘deciduous evergreen Forest’ Type is the huge and very tall Bhelu (Tetramelous nudiflora) trees. Some individuals grow so tall that 12 Bore shots do not reach birds perching atop the top branches. The flowers are small and nude but the trees are not ashamed though male and female Trees are different individuals and male or female flowers develop in different trees. They develop tremendous size of struts at their base like the vanes at the base of a rocket.
The wood is soft and often the branch breaks during severe storms, the stump of the broken branch rots easily and ultimately creates a hole in the huge tree where Hornbills could make their nest.
Without tropical Storm, the big Bhelu Trees cannot have hollows inside the tree and without hollows in the big tree like Bhellu, precious birds like Hornbills, Mynas, Owls, and quite a few other Birds that raise it young ones only inside the hollow of a tree cannot exists. Without tropical storms quite a species of birds can become extinct. There are a few Bhelu trees on the Highway sides in Dimapur, two of the Biggest ones characteristic of Dimapur area, are found near the Nagarjan Bridge and I hope Rev. Miazhielie Sakhrie, Pastor Kuda Baptist Church would pray earnestly for their long life in his morning Prayers.
Of all the plants in the Plant Kingdom, nothing is more intriguingly odd and attractive than the Tree Fern. Ferns are actually herbs; the Bible mentions the Mustard –a Herb- as growing very tall even Birds roosts in it at night, but Ferns like Mushrooms, are mostly of fleshy tissues incapable of becoming a Tree. However, some Ferns unbelievably grow strong and tall like the Tree and are known as Tree Fern. Ferns produce neither flowers nor fruits; they, like the Mushrooms produce only microscopic spores very difficult to be seen with the naked eye. How these microscopic spores germinate into a strong Tree Fern from the soil is difficult to understand.
Tree Ferns perhaps once dominated the Earth millions and millions of years ago when extinct giant Dinosaurs ruled ancient extreme Earth. Today we see Dinosaurs only in fossilized stones, yet the Tree Ferns still exists as it has survived millions and millions years of Climate changes and are found here and there in some places in the Earth and Nagaland too as vestiges of the ancient vegetation.
When one comes across Living Tree Ferns today, they takes us dreamlike to millions of years into the past and makes us feel surreally exhilarated as if one is freely outside the world and existing in a dreamland.
Tree Ferns are very precious and few, no one in Nagaland should naively cut them down into sections for growing Orchids or Flowers, a practice often seen in Elite section of the educated Naga Society. A small a dugout Tree Fern Sections is more precious than the Flowers it would support to grow!
Tree Ferns are still found growing here and there preciously rare in the Jungles of Nagaland; it would be very special if Nagaland could have some natural Tree Fern AREAS preserved as:
‘TREE FERN PRESERVATION PLOTS’ OF NAGALAND.
It will be a great attraction to many.
No place in Nagaland has more Tree Ferns than in the Aolichen Area. We must preserve them.
