My Tipaimukh Expedition

Oliver L. Intoate *

The feather continues to glide and the path it takes has no end.

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, bestowed my father a Project entitled 'Evaluation of the sector of development under the special central assistance (SCA), Tribal Sub-Plan with special reference to Tipaimukh Sub-Division' which was to investigate whether the said development fund had actually reached the concerned villages or the people, for this, my father chose Hmar Biel as he felt this area would more than be sufficient to highlight how all the Tribal Development Funds had been utilized.

Taking advantage of that opportunity, I decided to go along with him. While we were entitled to use Gypsy or any four wheeler I proposed to go by the way how the common people travel so as to experience the hardship faced by our own people and it was also going to be the first time I would ever stand on the soil where my forefathers once dwelled joyfully with their unique culture.

Since I had often highlighted in the daily paper about the hardship faced by our people, this gave me even more anticipation for the expedition. We eventually started our voyage by Truck toward Parbung with a full load of daily requisite of the people like rice, onion, cigarette, lamb, kerosene and the like.

As the Truck we rode in started moving toward the hill lock, I could see the busy town of Churachandpur from a distance, but any movement of the people could no longer be seen. Despite the unmerciful bumping or shaking of the Truck due to the bad track, by adjusting myself I tried to enjoy the panorama of the hill side with the weather too becoming more and more pleasant.

For once due to the worst condition of the road one of the truck's wheels almost went off; after they finished fixing the problem, it was already evening, and moon could also be clearly seen, its fresh light was yet to be felt though. As we continued to pass through some small villages, the children out side, some with only torn half-pant, some with no clothes at all, wielded us with their hand running after the slow moving truck for a while.

This reminded of the different life style of the people, when I visited my sister who is in France, we often went for a swim in the swimming pool and at the beach in Grande Motte somewhere in Mediterranean sea, most of the grown up women as well as kids at the swimming pool at the beach swim, had sun bathing topless. If you go to the other side, people there wore nothing at all.

That life-style seems to be considered a high life-style there, whereas, those kids in those villages had nothing to wear because of poverty. As the night grew older, the moon seemed to be more and more caring giving me a striking view of the dark hills. However, we finally had to stop at one village Leijangphai as it was too late to continue traveling. We let the villagers prepared dinner for us, the chicken was cooked very simple with lots of gravy though, I must have been so hungry that it tasted like the first class food in the town restaurant.

Since there was no any lodging place everyone one of us sought our own way to adjust with night, I slept at one porch of some unknown house with my sleeping bag, but mosquitoes were too many that I stayed the whole night awake trying to protect myself from their bite. We continued our traveling the next day and eventually approaching Pherzawl at noon, there I was told by a local friend I took for a guide that from here on it is Hmar's area.

I was amazed to see most of the hills with only weeds and small trees; otherwise it was in fact barren. I was wondering how long the people can continue to live in such condition whose life very much depends on the grace of fertility and forest products. I could however vividly make out how the life of my forefathers had been; the hills would have been covered by thick forest trees with different wild animals and birds.

With my elementary knowledge about the land-formation, I could make out that all our people living in this area are being threatened by Ecological Disaster. When we were nearing Parbung, some villagers who were on their way home from the vegetable farm stopped our Truck for a lift. Some of the local teenagers seemed to recognize that I am not from that area that they asked me where I am from.

I told them that I was also a part of that area though I live now in Imphal. I was fascinated with the things they wanted to know about city life, how easier is traveling in the city? I told them that we do have a bad road like here in many places in Imphal, particularly between Imphal and Churachandpur, but since maintenance is often done it is still travelable.

When it was almost dark, we started entering Parbung village, I was so shy to notice that a banner was put up by a group of students to wel-come my father. I let my father went ahead alone to join him later to the place where he was to stay. The students volunteered to assist my father in distributing questionnaires to each house for collecting data to know whether or not they received any aid from the Tribal Development Funds.

It is indeed surprising to see that most of their answers were 'No, we don't receive'. After some day, my father had to return home with all his data and as for me along with my local friend I had to start our real expedition on foot. From Lunthulien we started walking towards Senvon, it was not at all a problem to see the whole landscape of the Hmar inhabited area as it were all barren with only Ruotak (Small & Thin bamboo) growing, by the time we reached half way, we all of a sudden we met with a heavy downpour of rain and hail storm.

Fortunately, we managed to reach waiting-shed on the roadside; however, the storm was more like a whirlpool, changing its direction and in no time that we got all wet. There were other local people also, including three came running from their farm. After the rain became a bit subsided, we prepared a fire to make ourselves dry. I was devotedly listening to the conversation of those people while a teenage local girl served us local made sugar cane juice in brown color.

One of them said, 'If Sir. Challien or Darza comes as DC in Churachandpur, our Hmar area would also have been much improved'. Again one of them said, 'I heard that Sir. Rochunga Pudaite was going to become Manipur Governor'. I was immersed with the thought how all these people need consciousness.

Challien and Darza were in IRS/Custums& Excise, not in IAS cadre, usually governorship is a political appointment and it is given to those retired people who have great achievement or sacrifice for the nation, or who are loyal to the party ruled in the centre. When finally we reached the proper Tipaimukh where the High Dam was supposed to be constructed, we stayed in that area for a night.

After a brief survey, and the little experience that I had, and also, from the brief survey that I had made in and around Loktak, I learned that the living condition of those villages near Loktak project is at least two times better than before. During the construction of Tipaimukh High Dam crores of cash will be circulating within the area, those who have at least the elementary skill of survival will no doubt obtain some benefit to live with.

We also have strong and uncompromised student body to fight for compensation and land rights issues. Just because some one is very good in one particular field, it doesn't mean that those who are not good at that are coarse or what we may say less human. Every advancement, even computers, internet etc. are the product of idea; scientifically, we may say theory.

Every human being has an idea as to how they deal with their surrounding environments. For instance, if a villager wants to cross a river, by instinct he has an idea that if a bamboo or dry wood is put in that river it would float. Then, he uses that idea to cross the river, later he discovers that a boat can be made to do useful work in the water.

This very idea goes on and results in building a big or marvelous ship like Titanic. So are all inventions or discoveries. Many scientists are of the opinion that ancient scientists had a better intellect; reason may be that they possessed original ideas or theories. To my belief, they are equally brilliant; they possessed the unique idea because they were born earlier than their contemporary scientists.

Even our today great scientists develop their idea from what is already there in a more complex and constructive form and all these cities become the neighbor's envy. No one may have the idea of computer, internet etc without electricity. Why not give our precious brothers and sisters a chance to develop their intellect in a more constructive way.

After all, whether or not they want, our people in Hmars Areas will one day have to change their safe haven for the entire government development fund fails to reach them and to add to their suffering they are now beginning to experience Ecological Disaster.