Historical background

1Contrary to what happened to most of the Asian Continent during the colonial period1, large-scale exploitation of natural resources, particularly timber, does not occur in the present area dominated by the Khamti. The development of a Timber industry is something that appears very recently, only a few years after Indian independence in 1947. The absence of roads and communications at that time did not encourage the promotion of the region’s timber industry and the political and historical background of the region may explain this fact.2

2The first sawmill in the district, Lohit Saw Mill, began operating in 1948 in Sunpura. This scenario began changing in 1952 when the present Arunachal Plywood Industry (an enterprise initially based near Pasighat named the Bird Company Private Ltd.) shifted to Namsai as a consequence of the great 1950 earthquake and the devastating flood that occurred the following year (Choudhury 1978).

3In 1951, a few years after Indian independence, the area named as North-East Frontier Tracts by the British since 1914, was renamed the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) by the Indian authorities. This change marks a willingness to launch a sustainable development policy for the area’s population.

4In the early years of India’s independence, a few members of the Khamti elite got the opportunity to occupy key regional posts.3 For instance, Chokhamon Gohain, the Khamti raja, became the first Member of Parliament (MP) for the whole of the NEFA region from 1951 to 1960. Soon after, elected Khamti politicians had great influence on Arunachal politics and played a considerable role in enhancing the economic development of NEFA’s local populations. For the entire Northeast region, timber operations were then envisaged by the central government as a means of developing the area’s isolated populations. A sawmill was opened in Tezu in 1960 and run by the ruling classes. Part of the processed timber was used for the construction of the township, which became the administrative district capital, or was sent to Assam via Sadiya (Misra 1994). The success of this new venture rapidly encouraged the opening of a second sawmill, and a veneer factory in Chongkham.

5Misra reveals how quickly all the young Khamti entrepreneurs received help from an ex-member of parliament for securing loans to establish sawmills (Misra 1994). This marked the beginning of timber operations in the area. As pointed out by Behera, the locational advantage of the area occupied by the Khamti provided them with some advantages over other district tribes (Behera 1994). At the outset, when the timber industry first took off, rivers were used as the means of transport (Behera 1994). This industry rapidly flourished thanks to the support provided by elephants. The animals became essential for pulling and loading heavy timber on to the trolleys and trucks (Choudhury 1978).

6Initially when the timber industry came into being those who belonged to the elite class disliked holding salaried industry jobs. Let us remind ourselves that the Khamti are traditionally rice cultivators with agriculture as their most important occupation. Besides running sawmills, they wanted to be timber contractors and supply elephants on a hire basis to the flourishing sawmills of the region (Choudhury 1978). Many of them rapidly specialised in the capture and socialisation of elephants in order to make them work in the timber industry. As it occurs in many Asian regions in which timber exploitation took place during the colonial period4, the emergence and development of such activity increased the numbers of elephants living within Khamti society.

7They were, however, conscious of the revenue potential timber could bring to the whole community. As stated by Behera, in the mid-1960s a group of them met with the then adviser to the g1overnor of Assam in connection with the demand for making the booming “Assam Saw Mill” at Namsai a cooperative. On that occasion, one member of the elite raised an objection to the long-term lease of the entire forest to that sawmill (Choudhury 1978). As a result, a quota of allotted trees to the above mill was given to the local people to bring some benefit from the prosperous timber industry. From this period onwards, the timber industry kept growing and most of the Khamti took part in and took advantage of this expanding business.

8Over the following decades, the timber industry kept growing, notably within the Chongkham and Namsai administrative circles. Between 1977 and 1985, five sawmills, one plywood mill and one veneer factory were established in Chongkham (Behera 1994).

9The Khamti gained easy access to this lucrative business from which they benefitted directly. More than half of the small and medium scale industries of the district were located in the Khamti area in 1975 (Behera 1994). The cutting and selling of timber and trade in timber products such as plywood rapidly offered the Khamti new opportunities.

10Timber operations even generated new opportunities on the national market. Local sawmills had national contracts with the Indian railways for the construction of train seats which generated much revenue for the state. Between 1982 and 1984, 40 per cent of the sleepers were made of Nahar wood (Mesua ferrea), which is found in abundance in in the area (Roychowdhury 2015).

11Timber operations thus became a development motor for Arunachal Pradesh, the economy of which had largely depended on assistance from central government.5 Five-year plans controlled by the State Government Department of Planning were oriented to make growth easier for this industrial sector. Within such national policy, transport and communication sectors received the highest priority of the total plan outlays.6 Social services and agriculture, including forests were on the list of priorities as the second and third priority (Government of Arunachal Pradesh 2007).

12In this context, between 1980 and 1996, the number of timber-based industries has grown up by 400 per cent in Arunachal Pradesh (Roychowdhury 2015). The timber industry has also generated secondary trade related to that industry, including garages for vehicle repair or businesses serving timber workers’ basic needs. Consequently, located at only 6 kilometers from the Assam border, Namsai has emerged as an important urban centre.

13Illegal and corrupt activities have also proliferated posing serious threats to the district’s rich biodiversity. Prior to 1980, property hammer mark permits were issued under the Divisional Forest Officer’s discretion to approve the number of permits according to targets and capacity. A quota system was introduced in order to control the alarming rise in felling. Corruption and political pressure allowed the timber lobby to flout the rules made by the Forest Department.7

14In Arunachal Pradesh, the law states that only local people are allowed to hold tree and felling licences as well as permits to set up saw and plywood mills. In practice, however, outsiders either bought those licences or worked in clandestine partnerships with licence-holders. As a result, most of the timber economy was often run and managed by entrepreneurs from outside the region. In Namsai and Chongkham, almost all the units are registered in the name of Khamti entrepreneurs but run by outsiders (Behera 1994). Surprisingly this situation does not seem to alarm officials. Their dependence on outside entrepreneurs was even seen as a “transitory phase” by the Chief Minister himself who was confident that “a time will come when we will be able to manage our industry on our own” (Roychowdhury 2015). As of today, such a time has yet to come.

15Regarding illegal timber traffic, the Forest (Removal of Timber) Act of 1983 prohibits transportation of timber outside the state without an order issued by a competent authority (i.e. the Forest Department). This was enacted to prevent timber merchants and traders (who employed local villagers to clear forests) from illegal felling and removal of timber from state forests.

16In 1988, a proposal to ban timber operations in Arunachal Pradesh was made at a national conference of the State Forest Ministers conducted by the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests. Central government would then meet the estimated loss of 80 crores. This proposal was quickly turned down by the state due to the strong timber lobby in control of the region (Roychowdhury 2015). Despite official restrictions, timber businesses kept growing until the mid-1990s. At that time, Chongkham had the reputation of being one of the richest villages in Asia.

17The consequences of this activity’s development for Khamti society are not limited just to the increase in the number of elephants. Whereas previously, elephant possession was reserved for the most affluent and the Khamti aristocracy, it widely spread to a larger fringe of society. Moreover, encouraged by the Khamti elites and the upper class, many Khamti became themselves the main entrepreneurs of the trade, and organised the extraction and selling of wood in the district mills.

18During fieldwork, the period of the timber industry’s growth and development was often described to me as a gold rush. However, this situation suddenly and brutally stopped in 1996 when the Supreme Court of India, following the judgment in the case of T. N. Godavarman8 vs Union of India (W. P 202 of 1995), imposed a ban on the felling of any trees in all states and union territories. This had serious consequences for the whole of Khamti society (see box 7.1 below).

19The ban pushed de facto mahouts and elephants into unemployment, but some Khamti did not want to sell their elephants; rather they kept working in total illegality. Despite the risks taken in continuing operations after the ban, they hoped for a rapid renewal of the industry. Indeed, the Supreme Court initially stipulated that the ban was only an interim one. It was mentioned that it would allow the continuation of timber operations, but only after developing appropriate plans.

20This decision aroused much misunderstanding amongst the Khamti. Such incomprehension was not manifest in the decision itself, but rather in its brutality. Many Khamti told me that before the ban, they indeed realised that the massive forest exploitation was not something that could last eternally. Moreover, many of them were illegally engaged in timber operations and were thus aware that their activity could suddenly cease.

Present disinterest for Timber products

21Since the takeover, the timber industry is clearly no longer regarded by the authorities as a priority in developing the region. The revised “2008 Arunachal Pradesh State Industrial Policy” no longer mentions timber but clearly focuses on non-timber products such as bamboo9 and makes arrangements for the development of Bamboo as a resource (Sinha 2008).10 Such changes in economic politics had a significant impact on the region’s industries. For example, since its reopening in 2002 the largest sawmill in Namsai has been entirely devoted to bamboo. The factory is currently producing ready-made bamboo houses. As relics from the time of timber operations, the two locomotives that were used to transport logs from the forest to the mill are now placed by the current managers on both sides of the central building entrance like museum pieces. When I visited the factory in 2010, the large warehouse seemed empty. Thus, despite the restarting of operations this activity does not occupy the central position of the engine of Khamti economic growth as it was during the second half of the twentieth century. At the time of renewal, the timber industry did not benefit from the favourable measures it enjoyed in the past from the authorities more focused on other resources such as bamboo, medicinal plants, as well as tea or coffee.

Current rules and regulations

22During fieldwork, legal and illegal logging operations are continuing and constitute one of the major sources of income for many Khamti. For some, timber operations never stopped, but many seem to have realised that the timber supply cannot go on forever, as most of the people engaged in the timber business say that timber will not be available for a long period in the district. Since timber operations restarted, authorities have set in place new rules and regulations for the logging business. Some of them relate to the location of the sawmills, others define new regulatory log prices. These two points have profoundly changed the entire timber industry. The totality of sawmills that re-opened are now located within the Chongkham Administrative Circle. This is indeed the only one classified as an “industrial zone” by the Industry Department of Arunachal Pradesh State. Such a situation confers great advantage as compared to others by entrepreneurs and elephant owners in this area. Those who inhabit the Namsai or Piyong Circle, as is the case for my assistant’s family, must go to Chongkham to sell their logs. Nevertheless, the only available route to reach it forces them to go around the forest, drive through Namsai and cross the Tengapani River before reaching the mills. Since very few of them possess the necessary permits to log wood, such a journey, which is about 40 kilometers long, exposes them to controls="true" on the way. Indeed, in order to prevent illegal convoys, the Forest Department set up several nocturnal checkpoints. To avoid these controls, which could be circumvented through the corruption of forest officials, during the dry season some trucks cut through the forest following a trail which leads them directly to the Chongkham Administrative Circle. During the monsoon season, such a route is however not possible.

23During my stay, I noted that in order to avoid the long journey to Chongkham, illegal saw or veneer mills were directly installed in the forest or its surroundings to transform logs into boards. The boards then leave Arunachal Pradesh by truck without being controlled. Since its renewal, this activity does not appear to be as lucrative as it was before 1996. The current selling price of the logs, fixed by the government, is low compared to before the ban. As for example, within Gunanagar Industrial Estate, where seven sawmills exist, the average selling price of raw material is about 80 to 120 rupees per cubic foot. Before the ban, the price for such material was between 300 to 500 rupees. Many Khamti see in the present situation an encouragement for the illegal timber trade outside the mills. Indeed, during the survey I learnt that outside Arunachal Pradesh, one cubic meter of some species could fetch 1,000 rupees. Generally, such situations do not encourage contractors to invest in an activity. Thus, a young Khamti I met in Chongkham told me that in the present day selling wood is “like selling vegetables at the local market.”11 For this reason, he sold his elephant for 7 lakhs in 2007 to a buyer from the Kerala in the South. He is still currently living with this sum, and at the time we met he was looking for new opportunities to increase his remaining money by investing it in a new sector. The current lack of interest by the authorities regarding timber operations leads to a split into two systems for selling wood: a legal one, which occurs at day time within the mills, and an illegal one at night.

Organisation and processing of operations

24In order to undertake this activity, one must be an elephant owner and/or possess a truck. Without one or the other, it is difficult to enter into business. In villages, the Khamti organised themselves according to their means. The fact remains that only a few of them possess all the necessary resources to constitute an autonomous working unit. Insofar as the sale of an elephant brings in more money than that of a truck, during the ban entrepreneurs sold their animals first. Nowadays, anyone with a truck will try to be associated with the owner of an elephant for a defined period, generally on a contractual and seasonal basis. This is the case for Dipen’s brother who owns a truck but has sold the family elephant he inherited from his father.

25In the current situation, he told me that it was impossible for him to get a permit in his name. Indeed, Khamti villagers no longer benefit from jus soli for harvesting wood and suffer from a lack of funds to undertake timber operations on their own. Nor can they benefit from help from the Khamti urban elite as almost all of whom are no longer engaged in this industry. As stated earlier, since the ban they have invested in new economic sectors.

26Villagers then have no choice but to enter into partnerships with elephant owners coming from outside Arunachal Pradesh, particularly Assam. On a seasonal and contractual basis, these elephant owners come to conduct business in the area during the dry season. I had already noticed this while conducting a survey among elephant owners from Assam. In Makum for example, Surjwe Borua, who told me about the Moran practices regarding elephant capture (cf. Part I), informed me that every year he was sending his elephants to Changlang District (adjacent to Lohit) in order to make them work in the timber industry. During the dry season, from December to April, his elephants and mahouts come to work in the forests of Arunachal Pradesh. As seen in the chapter “Human-Konkie Collaboration”, the presence of elephants in April is needed for participation in the Bihu festival. Nevertheless, Surjwe informed me that after the festival his elephants go back to Arunachal Pradesh where they remain during the entire monsoon. Even though they do not work during this season, the elephants can roam freely into the forest, which gives them the opportunity to reproduce with forest elephants.

27The Khamti engaged in timber extraction attempt to conduct this activity throughout the year. As soon as the weather permits, and even during the monsoon period they venture into the forest. This, however, exposes them and their elephants to great risks and hazards, such as disease and accidents. In particular, animals suffer more due to the friction of the ropes against their skin.

28From an economic point of view, timber logging requires large sums of money. One must first rent an elephant for the season. As an indication, the rental of an animal is negotiated at around 15,000 rupees per month, to which must be added between 5,000 and 10,000 rupees per month as payment for the mahout. Additionally, one must then hire sawyers for cutting trees as well as support truck cost and maintenance.

29Nevertheless, a fully loaded truck can bring up to between 20,000 and 60,000 rupees. Knowing that a truck can make several daily trips between the forest and the mill during the dry season, this activity can yield large sums of money in just a few days. With a contractor hired to cut the wood and the presence of one or two elephants at the camp, the entrepreneur need only come and inspect each truckload.

30While they were able to dispense with their dependence upon foreign contractors —through the efforts of the government encouraged by local politicians— since the renewed activities, the Khamti have once again become subcontractors or nominees for entrepreneurs from Assam. Villagers often expressed to me the feeling that their resources were being plundered by contractors from Assam.

31From tree selection until their transformation into rough or plywood boards, timber operations mobilise several social groups, such as lumbermen, drivers, mahouts and contractors. Here is a brief summary of the production chain’s current organisation, including the leading stakeholders and their roles.

32After their selection, the trees are felled by harawalla (Hindi: sawyers). They live in temporary camps in the forest and belong to several district minority communities. The hired contractor provides them with the necessary food supplies during camp visits. Once a tree is felled it is transformed into logs. The felled trees may measure several dozen meters before they are cut at the first branches and chopped into several pieces that make up the logs. Each of them measure between four and six meters in length. A tree is transformed into three or four logs and the felling and cutting operations are performed over several days.

33Elephants and their mahouts intervene to assemble logs in a location from where they will be loaded. In Lohit and present Namsai District, logs are exclusively transported to Chongkham via trucks.12 The gathering place should be ideally located next to a trail providing easy access for the trucks. Once a sufficient number of logs have been gathered, a truck with a driver and an assistant. come to collect them. For the elephant and his mahout, new tasks are then required. The animal has to load and align the logs on the truck bed so it they can leave the forest for the village. Between the trail and the road, that is to say until the end of the forest track, the elephant and his mahout follow the truck. They may have to help by pushing the truck when it is stuck which is particularly prevalent during the monsoon season. The work performed by the elephant stops there. Before 1996, some were also employed in sawmills where they unloaded the logs and put them on the machines. Trucks are generally loaded in the afternoon and then brought to the village. The partners cool off, eat, and get some sleep before leaving for the mills. After midnight, the men leave again and drive on the officially closed road to illegally sell the day’s load. It will be observed that there is a certain tolerance, linked to corruption, for illegal timber sales carried out at night. Indeed, it is enough to go and visit the many garages located in the gateway of Namsai each morning to realise the number of trucks taking refuge there for the rest of the night. Drivers and their assistants sleep there as well, and in the morning, they take the opportunity to briefly repair their machines before returning to their village.

Tree selection

34In the forest, the choice of trees to exploit is crucial in that only specific species are sought. The selection is based on species as well as their size and maturity. The selling price can vary considerably from one species to another after their final transformation and their scarcity are taken into account. Different types of wood are transformed differently: those for the sawmill are transformed into rough boards; others are for veneer mills (plywood), which also takes less time to render. The buying and selling prices of logs depends on their volume measured in cubic feet which varies according to the species. The total volume of each load is always calculated before loading the truck. Below is a non-exhaustive list of the main species used in the timber industry.

35To produce plywood the main target species are poma (Toona ciliata), hollock (Terminalia myriocarpa) and hollong (Dipterocarpus gracilis). The last two are also transformed in mills to produce rough boards. Among the other species that make rough boards, there are mekahi (Phoebe paniculata), mekai (Shorea assamica) and sopa (Michelia doltsopa). In regards to sawmills, there are more than twenty different species of wood. Nahar (Mesua ferrea) is the most common, while the most expensive and rare is bola (Morus macroura). The species for sawmills are the most in demand today, although they are increasingly less numerous in the district’s forests. In Asia, during the British period, tree selection was designated as scientific resource management to let the forest regenerate and prevent the depletion of certain species. Only the most mature trees were selected according to a 25 and 30-year cycle. According to that system, logging would then become a sustainable practice never be exhausted.13

36Some Khamti told me that when they started working in the timber industry, they paid attention to the length and maturity of the tree. Moreover, some species were only used for religious purposes, as is the case for gonsoroi (Cinnamomum glaucescens). The material extracted from them was exclusively employed to make Buddha relics offered by pilgrims in exchange for merit. Nevertheless, despite the predicted wood shortages, gonsoroi logs are also sold to mills today, proof that there are no formal rules, or at least that they are not always respected. Some trees are however, still considered sacred and remain untocuhed, namely the Ficus, or those with more than seven boughs believed to be the abode of spirits (Behera & Mantaw 1997).

37Regarding forest resource management, the Khamti follow Theravada Buddhism and at the same time practise spirit worshiping. In order to appease the phi noy mountain spirits they perform a ritual called tang ton me, which consists of planting a tree on the very same place where another has been cut. Such a ritual can be considered a strategy against deforestation. During fieldwork, I noted that this indigenous method of forest conservation has been reduced today to the symbolic placing of a branch on the spot where a tree is felled.

38A presentation of the context and the course of the activities studied highlight the precarious working conditions of both men and elephants. The organisation of labour is often difficult and carried out illegally with few resources. Nevertheless, despite authorities’ willingness to reduce it, the timber industry remains the main source of employment for the Khamti and elephants living in more rural areas (as opposed to the newly formed urban centres).

39After presenting the current operation, I will now enter into the ethnography of timber elephants as observed during fieldwork.