Post by L Roebuck on Jan 13, 2006 9:32:01 GMT -5
'Pompik Adi' may be boon to state's tourism: Tada
Itanagar: For the denizens of Pongging village under Arunachal's Upper Siang district, 'Pompik Adi' (a natural cave inhabbited by bats) is a symbol of wealth as the dwellers of this place provides abundant meat to the local villagers.
It is not unnatural to find such a large numbers of bats in caves throughout the state and the various Arunachalee tribes value such caves to a great extent from economic point of view as these caves provide them the required amount of meat.
They preserved and protected such caves from the reach of others and thus nobody other that a particular owner clan is allowed to reach the caves and catch the bats once every year.
Recently a team of research officers of museum and archaeology wing of the research department led by Cultural Affairs Secretary Y D Thongchi and Research Director Tage Tada visited Pongging village and investigated a natural cave, two kilometers away from the village. The team of officers first visited the cave during December last year.
''The cave belongs to the Panyang community of the Adi tribe, who purchased the same from Saro community sometime 200 years back'', Mr Tada told UNI, adding the cave measures 6.5 metres in height, 3.5 metres in breadth and 100 metres in depth.
The Panyangs since time immemorial has been catching bats in lakhs once a year, particularly during the month of January. The practice of killing thousands of bats for meat purpose once a year help keeping natural demographic balance of bats breeding and surviving, Mr Tada informed.
''The practice of hunting bats seems to be reasonable and scientific, which needs no interference from outside even from ornithologist'', Mr Tada advocated.
Mr Tada added that without interfering with the traditional practice of the tribals and the natural settlement of the bat population, certain activities for development and improvement of the cave and approach road need to be taken up.
The cave of the bats could be boon to the local people for their economic activities through tourism as such type of caves would attract foreign tourists particularly ornithologists and adventurists, he added.
www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=85357
Itanagar: For the denizens of Pongging village under Arunachal's Upper Siang district, 'Pompik Adi' (a natural cave inhabbited by bats) is a symbol of wealth as the dwellers of this place provides abundant meat to the local villagers.
It is not unnatural to find such a large numbers of bats in caves throughout the state and the various Arunachalee tribes value such caves to a great extent from economic point of view as these caves provide them the required amount of meat.
They preserved and protected such caves from the reach of others and thus nobody other that a particular owner clan is allowed to reach the caves and catch the bats once every year.
Recently a team of research officers of museum and archaeology wing of the research department led by Cultural Affairs Secretary Y D Thongchi and Research Director Tage Tada visited Pongging village and investigated a natural cave, two kilometers away from the village. The team of officers first visited the cave during December last year.
''The cave belongs to the Panyang community of the Adi tribe, who purchased the same from Saro community sometime 200 years back'', Mr Tada told UNI, adding the cave measures 6.5 metres in height, 3.5 metres in breadth and 100 metres in depth.
The Panyangs since time immemorial has been catching bats in lakhs once a year, particularly during the month of January. The practice of killing thousands of bats for meat purpose once a year help keeping natural demographic balance of bats breeding and surviving, Mr Tada informed.
''The practice of hunting bats seems to be reasonable and scientific, which needs no interference from outside even from ornithologist'', Mr Tada advocated.
Mr Tada added that without interfering with the traditional practice of the tribals and the natural settlement of the bat population, certain activities for development and improvement of the cave and approach road need to be taken up.
The cave of the bats could be boon to the local people for their economic activities through tourism as such type of caves would attract foreign tourists particularly ornithologists and adventurists, he added.
www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=85357