The Tāngkhuls relish birds of any kind except jungle crows, house sparrows, and swallows. These birds live mostly in close association and proximity with humans. The Tāngkhul tribe values sharing a home with sparrows and swallows because they believe it brings happiness and warmth to the house.
Despite the traditional hospitality towards these birds, it is observed that their numbers are decreasing considerably. No satisfactory answer has been found for the diminishing population of these three friendly birds. The common people can realize the fast disappearance of these birds because they share the same habitation. However, there are many other species which we do not realize are silently disappearing every year.
According to the Census of Marine Life Scientists, the number of species in the world is 8.7 million. Experts calculated that between 0.01 and 0.1% are going extinct annually, i.e., 870 to 8,700 species disappear forever every year! The uncontrolled use of toxic chemicals, fertilizers, and pesticides presents a serious threat to all forms of life.
Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson estimated that 30,000 species per year (or three species per hour) are being driven to extinction. Most of the causes of this extinction are the direct result of human activity and constitute a direct threat to human well-being, though plenty of animals have gone extinct naturally or due to causes unrelated to human activity. As per the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, worldwide, 12 percent of mammals, 12 percent of birds, 31 percent of reptiles, 30 percent of amphibians, and 37 percent of fish are threatened with extinction.
The Black Panther, locally called kuirāng in Tāngkhul, is no longer seen. It is said that until the 1980s, kuirāng was spotted in many areas in Ukhrul district. Kazingkha̱ (lion), Kha̱rei (leopard), hornbills, and many more animals and birds, which are very common in Tāngkhul tales and folksongs, are no longer seen. The reverberating sound of the hoolock gibbon, locally called uri-urā, has been silenced.
Physical and cultural landscapes are dramatically changing; there is a fast disappearance of flora and fauna, and a rapid change in the pattern of resource use. The area of fertile land has diminished to a large extent in recent years. Monsoons or rains no longer come in their predictable seasons; the frequency of flash floods is growing frighteningly. People witness the dramatic changes taking place: destructive floods and landslides are frequent and common sights for people recently. Most of the rivers and rivulets have dried up, and the wet terrace fields that used to retain water year-round for ages are now dry, fallow, and uncultivable. Some streams that carried men away decades ago are now shallow enough to barely cover the tops of your feet!
The traditional Tāngkhuls believe that humans are part and parcel of creation and not above creation. They have developed specific narratives, myths, and beliefs that answer fundamental questions about how people should behave towards their environments. They perceive that humans are the only living creatures to have shiyanchikān (norms, ethics, or etiquette); humans must extend their law towards other fellow living creatures. There are many prohibitions about human behavior against nature which the Tāngkhuls call shārra. Shārra has no exact corresponding English word; it can be loosely translated as taboo or forbidden.
Some examples of the extension of the laws towards other beings include:
- Sāngasoma hungdalei lakhala phar shārra/sāthat shārra (misfortune happens to those who spear and kill animals during sexual reproduction). Zur ātamli thing hao shārra (it is forbidden to chop or cut trees during the rainy season). As a people whose livelihood depends on the bountifulness and generosity of nature, it is unwise and unethical to cut trees in the best growing season of the year. Vānao āra̱kaphara̱ ātamli, anao kasha̱ atamli khalen sang shārra (it is forbidden to trap birds while they are laying eggs or hatching chicks). Killing or trapping a bird that is laying eggs or hatching results in the demise of numerous vulnerable young lives within the nest.
The traditional Tāngkhuls obey shārra̱ because they understand the seriousness and crucial role nature plays in sustainable culture and they experienced the certainty of the impact of disobeying the taboo!
For the Tāngkhuls, virtues like ethics and etiquette are not merely for humans but also extend to the environment. The traditional Tāngkhuls’ environmental ethics can be understood as the whole set of values, practices, and behaviors towards nature that Tāngkhuls have developed based on observation, experiences, and reflection over hundreds of years of living on their traditional land.
Many folktales talk about the interrelationship with the animal world; they tell of animals and humans exchanging roles, acquiring supernatural powers, teaching, and providing for one another. There are stories where animals are given human nature and character. This relationship tells of the harmony of living together. The relations are not based on consent but rather on the law of nature.
In the traditional environmental moral system of the Tāngkhul, nature is not forcibly conquered but pacified and petitioned with the belief that animals can understand human behavior and language. Knowledge to propitiate nature is crucial for knowing how to live in harmony with nature.
To paraphrase what Garrett Hardin said on population (1968), “the problem of environmental degradation has no technical solution; it requires a fundamental extension in morality.” What Hardin meant here is that there are human problems that have no technical solutions; technological innovation alone cannot solve all the problems that we are facing today.
To enhance the relationship between humans and nature, the environmental law of the land and regulation need to be complemented by environmental moral ethics and sensibility. The traditional Tāngkhuls believed in the law of natural ethics, that there is an inherent connection between the moral qualities of the people and the stability of the ecology. Therefore, the harmony of the natural world depends on the continuation of the extension of the morality of humans to non-human lives.
It is disheartening to witness how the quest for individual satisfaction and material comfort has eroded the moral fabric of our community. Our duty to preserve the earth’s resources for future generations is now overshadowed by our greed for immediate gratification.
A system centered on self-interested individual behavior is destined to collapse. The Tāngkhuls have always believed that individual actions should not outweigh community interests. They understood that a sustainable culture cannot exist where individual priorities surpass community values. Individual freedom is embedded within the norms and conventions of the community. The unfortunate decline of traditional and communal moral systems can be traced as a root cause of environmental degradation. The health of the environment can be preserved only through a change in the behavior of the user of that environment.
While achieving a utopian society of complete harmony between humanity and nature may be unattainable, institutionalizing a long-practiced environmental ethic could guide our behavior closer to this ideal.
(Tuisem Ngakang teaches history at Delhi University. He can be reached at tuisem.ngakang@gmail.com)
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