About

Address – Lower Dibang Valley, Roing. 

Ten years ago, when Anoko Mega first rescued a pair of hog deer fawns from a neighbour, he knew his love for wildlife would eventually turn into conservation action. Hailing from the Idu-Mishmi tribe of the Lower Dibang Valley region in Arunachal Pradesh, Anoko has been paving the way in the conservation of the recently discovered subspecies of the Western Hoolock gibbon, known as the Mishmi Hills Hoolock gibbon. As a member of the State Board for Wildlife, he has been actively involved in wildlife rescues, leading fourteen conservation efforts so far.

Anoko has been part of the Abralow Memorial Multipurpose Society, a local conservation group that works on educating people on the need for environmental protection. Having learned wildlife-filmmaking from the renowned ‘Green Hub’ in Tezpur, Assam, he has since spent his time documenting the biodiversity of Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary. His films highlight the rampant wild meat trade of Hoolock gibbons, which has helped change the perception of the community towards the hunting and consumption of these primates. “Naively, I too have previously hunted them for meat, but today I learn from my mistakes and continue to spread the word wherever I go”, Anoko confesses. There isn’t a specific term for conservation in the Idu-Mishi language but their culture forbids the hunting of the Hoolock gibbons. According to folklore, killing, or even mimicking a Hoolock gibbon leads to bad luck; or the ‘evil eye to be upon you’.

While superstition works in favour of the Hoolock gibbon in this case, hunting is not the sole threat they face. Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary, the prime habitat of the gibbons is under constant threat due to rapid ‘unsustainable development’, leading to fragmentation of habitat and populations of the Hillock gibbons. These newly privatized lands put the arboreal species under immense threat of electrocution by overhead power lines that now replace the trees that once existed. The danger of being attacked by dogs continues to loom on land, leaving the gibbon families stranded, with one family being limited to just two trees. The researches on these subspecies are relatively nascent, their populations are unknown and severely threatened, and hence there is an urgent need to protect them.

Generating scientific data on the Hoolock gibbon will be instrumental in implementing site-specific conservation plans. Anoko planned to adopt a community-based approach to sensitize and involve the local tribes in conservation, creating sustainable livelihoods and reducing anthropogenic pressure on gibbon habitats. He continued to interact with the villagers and gathered information about the threats faced by the gibbons, in turn learning about people’s attitudes and interactions towards them.

 Anoko and his team often organized nature walks and plantation drives for school children, to better understand the Hoolock gibbons. It then dawned upon him that this could become an eco-tourism venture. “I wanted to create a successful -model and restore a fragmented gibbon spot and set an example for other such areas. We could bring tourists to sight and learn about gibbons in the area, and the money earned would be an incentive for farmers that owned land within the gibbon’s habitat. People could also participate in planting trees, which he says will hopefully be used by gibbons for mobility” he says. Anoko’s project has the potential to become a long-term sustainable model with high replicability, helping secure and restore gibbon habitats by creating dedicated corridors. Anoko chuckles at being called a conservation hero and does not believe he’s doing something extraordinary. “It’s everyone’s responsibility to initiate conservation efforts that others can follow”, he says. As corridors for the gibbons of Mishmi Hills are being gradually rebuilt, Anoko’s tireless efforts have mobilized the local people to secure gibbon families and their fragmented habitats.