Nagaland's Hornbill Festival: An Ecologically Sensitive Festival 

Nagaland, the land of the Nagas, a set of tribes who lives in the Northeast and in Myanmar, is known for its verdant hills, salubrious climate and lush green forests. Lying in the 10th distinct bio-geographic zone among the 18 mega biodiversity hotspots, the indigenous tribes of Nagaland are known for living their lives close to nature. 

India’s Look East policy has been putting immense pressure on infrastructural development on a timeline in the Northeastern region, including Nagaland. However, the communities and the state government are trying to protect the environmental richness of the state through tourism projects that are sustainable and ecologically sensitive. One such project is the annual Hornbill Festival. 

Also Read: Five Places To Visit In Kohima When At The Hornbill Festival 2022

Celebrated for ten days from December 1, alongside Nagaland Statehood Day, the Hornbill Festival has become an example of  responsible tourism since its inception in 2000, both from the perspective of the  state and its communities and from tourists. Unlike conventional festivals, celebrating Hornbill Festival cares not just for environmental protection and sustainability but is also an occasion to revive age-old traditions among the Nagas. 

A typical Naga house in the village is perched high on a ridge or hillside will livestock and a vegetable garden, hand-woven garbage disposal boxes and a pit for vermicompost for biodegradable waste. One of the main qualities of Naga food is that it is made of locally procured vegetables and rice. 

A few years ago, Nagaland banned single-use plastics and has been carrying out awareness drives against it. The venue of the Hornbill Festival, Kisama Heritage village, 12 km away from the capital city of Kohima, makes water dispensers available for tourists. Plastic banks are also placed to collect used water bottles. 

The ‘morungs’ - traditional Naga dormitory cottages are built with a thatched roof, bamboo-knitted walls and ceilings and mud-plastered floors. The morungs serve food and drinks in bamboo baskets and cups. In other food stalls, Naga traditional food is served on Musa Indiana and banana leaves to the visitors. Apart from this, bamboo wash basins stand in the morungs, showcasing various tribes tribes and their artistic practices, apart from bamboo architectural structures, bamboo carvings and weaves. Another unique feature of the festivals are the identity cards made for the officials, dignitaries and press, which are made of cardboard with coconut string. 

Talking to Outlook, Sethrichem Sangtam, conservationist and founder of the NGO Better Life Foundation, said, “The remote villages of Nagaland still have a very clean way of life. 90 percent of the people use banana leaves to wrap food and serve in it, because it's bio-degradable and preserves the aroma of the food. Villagers still use bamboo cups to drink tea. The use of plastic, especially disposable plates and cups, are recent phenomena in Nagaland. The traditional lives of indigenous Nagas have been ecologically sustainable. Whenever we organise any festival, we try to make it zero waste and use locally sourced materials. The Hornbill Festival is no different.”

Naming the festival after a much-loved and endangered bird from the state shows the huge responsibility in preserving the diminishing wildlife of the state. The Kohima camp, a luxurious tent built in the wilderness for the Hornbill Festival each year is made of bamboo and wood that is sourced locally. 

Talking to Outlook, Urmi Bhattacharjee, a former environmental journalist from Guwahati who recently visited the festival said, “From the music and  culture to the food and craft, the Hornbill Festival was a fine expression of the people of Nagaland.  The festival showcased ecologically designed products and crafts that made the least adverse impact on the environment in their product cycle. The festival is setting a precedent for the rest of the world.” 

The World Tourism Organisation defines ecotourism as “tourism practiced in relatively undisturbed natural areas, for the main purpose of admiring and learning about them”. With its scenic landscape, Nagaland possesses the potential of having many eco-tourism destinations.  

The platform of Hornbill Festival is used by the government both in the state as well as the centre to offer evidence of India’s pursuing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The festival has a SDG Information Desk and activities such as quizzes, games, short film screenings, pledges, themed on the 17 ambitious global goals with 169 targets to achieve a sustainable future. and much is part of it. The prize for the winners are sustainable goodie bags.

The Green Christmas Corner with interactive activities aims to generate awareness on celebrating major festivals in an eco-friendly manner and sustainable manner. “The Government of Nagaland is also working towards localising and integrating the SDGs and this is yet another effort towards creating more awareness and public participation in the SDGs-oriented action, as well as aligning all activities to the SDGs during the Festival period.” stated the Department of Public Relations, Nagaland.

The Hornbill Festival is very colourful and showcases the vibrant attire and valuable folklore and songs of the various tribes. Beni Sumer Yanthan, Assistant Professor in English at Nagaland University, Kohima campus, who researches Naga folklore says “As a Naga who grew up listening about the world conjured up in the Hornbill, I think it’s important for us not to simply look at these performances as enactments of patricide texts, but unlocking their metaphoric content and reading the ecological and ecocentric motifs and symbols embedded in these performances as stemming from a world in which people created these rites and rituals as a way of making sense of the world around them. The creation of narratives, the ceremony of ritual and the beliefs that hold these configurations in place are echoes of an order of thinking that existed before the chirographic chronicling of Naga history itself, and must be read in the complexity of the oral continuum in which it exists – as fragments of history and as reactions to historical and cultural processes.”

The Hornbill Festival is the kind of festival that must be emulated in a world ravaged by climate change and ecologically unsustainable practices destroying the earth.