Like most children belonging to Nyishi tribe in Arunachal Pradesh, Nabam Bapu had taken part in cultural performances in school wearing the traditional headgear adorned with the beak of Great Indian Hornbill and a machete in hand having teeth of a clouded leopard.
As he grew up, the hard truth that the wild animals are hunted by villagers belonging to most of the tribes for preparing such traditional garments and articles made Nabam sad. "Finding a solution on how to keep our culture alive without killing the wildlife was always there in the back of my mind. This prompted me to do research on how to offer an alternative by making replicas of such wildlife parts. The idea took a concrete shape after meeting Anang Tadar, an award winning innovator, a few years ago," Nabam, who studied civil engineering, told DH on Wednesday.
Nabam and his fiance Likha Nana, a post-graduate in History, continued further research with technical support from Tadar and finally started a project for production of the hyper realistic replica of the wildlife parts such as beak, jaw, claws and teeth of wild birds and animals using a 3D printer, earlier this year. "Our motto is to preserve tradition without harming the wildlife. Most of the tribes of the Tani clan, Nyishi, Adi, Galo, Apatani and Tagin follow the same practice to keep their culture alive," Nabam.
Hailing from the Papumpare district of Arunachal, Nabam and Likha, both 28 now, met each other in 2018 and formed a start-up named Arunachal Ivory and Ornaments, earlier this year with the seed funding support provided by Arunachal Pradesh government under its Arunachal Pradesh Entrepreneurship Development Progamme 2.0. "We have already started producing Hornbill beak which is used in preparation of the Nyishi tribe headgear. We are all set to produce the replica of claws of clouded leopard and jaws of wild boar. Presently, we are using resin and organic plastic and are exploring the possibility of using plant based resin, which is biodegradable," Nabam further said.
"Before and during production, we met the community leaders and artists, who make such items and took their suggestion so that the replicas look exactly like the original wildlife and bird parts. The response from our community leaders have been warm so far and we hope to scale up our production and innovation in order to provide our communities an alternative which will help prevent hunting of the wildlife and preserve our culture too," he said.
"The communities also want an alternative as the price of a clouded leopard claw is between four to five lakh now. But the replicas we make cost around Rs. 5,000 to 6,000," he said.
Arunachal Ivory and Ornaments is one of start-up companies incubated at the Innovation Park at Itanagar, which is a joint project of Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and Arunachal Pradesh government. "The mission is to protect and preserve the natural environment by implementing innovative solutions and promoting sustainable practices. They plan to grow beyond Arunachal Pradesh to places where practise of using animal parts in rituals are there and they would like to replicate this business model for greater good of the environment," said Sadique Mannan, programme head of the Innovation Park. Tribes in some other states in the Northeast also follow the same hunting practice to keep their culture alive.
The company is trying to patent their products with the help of Arunachal Pradesh government's department of science and technology.