Ukhrul: Foreign tourists from United Kingdom and Switzerland visited Jessami as part of the promotion on the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s theme Rethinking Tourism: The Real Experience Lies in the Village adopted since 2022 by Jessami Tourism and Wildlife Conservation Board.
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Tourists as many as eleven from Europe, on a two day tour to Jessami, got to experience different taste of tourism at this historic village. Nestling on a hillock surrounded by lofty mountains on all sides with three rivers namely Thetsii, Lanye and Tizu traversing through Jessami homeland, a global World War II event popularly known as the Battle of Jessami took place at this village fought between the 1st Assam Regiment of the Allied Forces and the 31st Division of Japanese soldiers from 28 March, 1944 to 1st April, 1944.
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The visiting team featured Robert Lyman, a renowned WWII historian, Yaiphaba Kangjam, proprietor (Battle of Imphal Tours) and Charlotte, grand daughter of Lt Colonel William Brown, under whose command, the 1st Assam Regiment fought fiercely against the enemies and halted their swift movement for four days towards Brahmaputra plain. In a small gathering with the locals at the Jessami War Memorial site on Tuesday, the team organised a wreath laying ceremony as a mark of tribute to the fallen heroes besides delivering short speech from various quarters including Charlotte and Lyman. Similar event was also organised in the battlefield site at neighbouring Kharasom village, where the brave Captain Jock Young, honouring to the higher command order Fight till the last man displayed extraordinary courage till he was martyred. These two battles assumed significance upon the altar of the tide of war in favour of the Allied Forces.
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The team also a made a quick expedition to Jessami Hume’s Pheasant Community Reserve to chance upon the sighting of a rare and endangered bird. Created in 2022, the reserve is a remarkable initiative spearheaded by the Jessami Village Council whose primary objective is to safeguard the fast diminishing population of the species while nurturing its natural habitat.
Mentioned may be made that this rare avian species locally known as Tsara in Chakhesang and Nongin in Manipuri is the state bird of Manipur and Mizoram. Towards the evening, the team explored around the sprawling rice-field in the Thetsii valley as part of an agro-educational tour on the sustainable practice of rice farming by the native people since time immemorial. The theme “Rethinking Tourism….” adopted by the Jessami Village Council since last year, drew its inspiration from the traditional practice based on Sustainable Living.
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Mention may be made that more than ninety tourists (birders, botanists, battlefield tourists, cultural tourists) had visited Jessami since September, 2022.
Jessami, it seems, is ready for the world even if the challenges ahead are many. Live and Let Live!
(Contributed by Dr Weyepe N Mekrishu)
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