The Amazing Morphs of the Golden Cat

In this multimedia story for Cataplisms, we join conservation anthropologist Sahil Nijhawan and his collaborator Iho Mitapo in the Dibang Valley on a journey that is both spiritual and scientific. Iho and Sahil are founding members of the Dibang Team, a biocultural conservation initiative led by the Idu Mishmi, the indigenous inhabitants of the Dibang valley, that takes a multi-pronged and multi-disciplinary approach. It has established an ancestral storytelling program (Taju Taye), piloted a program that adapts the traditional system of shamanic learning to present-day socio-economic realities (Igu Aahito) and pioneered community-led conservation and research.

In the audio story above, Iho details the creation story of his Idu Mishmi community, one which deems man and tiger to be brothers. Meanwhile, Sahil fills us in on their camera-trapping expedition that resulted in a sensational deep-forest revelation. His team discovered a unique adaptation that might be critical to the survival of the elusive Asian golden cat, a beautiful mid-sized feline listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. Scroll down to see their discovery vibrantly illustrated in a comic by artist Sudarshan Shaw.

Sahil and Iho’s research takes place in the sprawling Dibang valley in Arunachal Pradesh, India. The valley lies in the embrace of the Eastern Himalayas Global Biodiversity Hotspot, where new species, like the orchid Hemipilia basifoliata are continuously being discovered. The culture of the Idu Mishmi is credited for preserving the diversity of this land. However, today the Valley is threatened by infrastructure projects, including 17 mega dams proposed along the valley’s eponymous river. Local and national opinion on these projects is divided, but one thing is certain—if these are greenlit the social, cultural and ecological fabric of the region will be irreversibly changed. With such looming threats to their habitat, the fate of the Golden Cat and myriad other species remains uncertain.

You can learn more about the work of the Dibang Team on their website.

The audio story was produced by Tushar Das. You can find him on Instagram and his work on the Brown Monkey Studio website.

Artist Sudarshan Shaw has put together a beautiful comic based on the story of Iho and Sahil’s discovery. You can find it below.

About the narrators

Iho Mitapo is an Idu Mishmi from Lower Dibang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh. He has been conducting research on Dibang Valley’s biocultural diversity since 2014 in collaboration with anthropologist Sahil Nijhawan. Iho is the first certified river guide from the Idu community. In 2017, he founded a home-grown ecotourism venture, Dibang Adventures, with the aim of preserving Dibang’s unique landscape while engaging unemployed local youth. He is a member of the Dibang Team, an Idu-led biocultural conservation initiative. He also co-coordinates the activities of Elopa-Etugu Community Eco-Cultural Preserve (EECEP)—a Community Conserved Area spanning 76 km2 in his ancestral land, one of the most biodiverse parts of India. Iho was awarded the prestigious Sanctuary Wildlife Service Award in 2018 for his tireless work and contribution towards the conservation of his homeland. He has delivered talks at several national and international fora and has inspired films and articles on Dibang Valley’s story. He is also a farmer and a father of two wonderfully curious young Idus.

Sahil Nijhawan is engineer turned conservation anthropologist. For more than a decade, he has conducted interdisciplinary research in Latin America, Southern Africa and India. He is interested in human-wildlife relations, big cat ecology and conservation, camera trapping methods, indigenous/local concepts of nature, animism and shamanism, hunting sustainability, ritual ecologies, and locally-led conservation. His ongoing research and collaborative conservation work in Northeast India began with his doctoral research which studied the ecological, cultural and political relations between wildlife and the Idu Mishmi people of the Dibang Valley of Arunachal Pradesh, India. Future work will expand research into other ethnic communities within Northeast India to understand the factors that lead to local conservation. He is particularly interested in newer ways of integrating cutting edge technologies with local knowledge and classical ethnographic approaches, research capacity building in NE India and collaborating with local people, artists and educators towards inclusive, ethical and reflexive approaches to conservation research and writing. Sahil is affiliated with ZSL, National Geographic Society, UCL Anthropology, and the ICCA Consortium. He enjoys travelling, learning languages, baking and growing his own food.

About the artist

Sudarshan Shaw is an artist and visual designer from Bhubaneswar, India. ‘Folk Indica’- his unique contemporary art style is rooted in the rich cultural history and heritage of art and folk expressions of India. He loves to draw wild & winged creatures and paint them in mud, water and primary colors. When walking the land in search of his stories, he proudly reserves his biases towards wisdom of the wild. He hopes to bring the spirit of native art back as the visual language of the land, for the land.