Gazetteer of India Tirap District
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Gazetteer of India ARUNACHAL PRADESH Tirap District GAZETTEER OF INDIA ARUNACHAL PRADESH TIRAP DISTRICT ARUNACHAL PRADESH DISTRICT GAZETTEERS TIRAP DISTRICT Edited by S. DUTTA CHOUDHURY GOVERNMENT OF ARUNACHAL PRADESH 1980 Published by Shri R.N. Bagchi Director of Information and Public Relations Government of Arunachal Pradesh, Shillong Printed by N.K, Gossain & Co. Private Ltd. 13/7ArifFRoad Calcutta 700 067 © Government of Arunachal Pradesh First Edition: 1980 First Reprint Edition: 2008 ISBN--978-81-906587-1-3 Price: Rs. 225/- Reprinted by M/s Himalayan Publishers Legi Shopping Con^jlex, BankTinali,ltanagar-791 111. FOREWORD I am happy to know that the Tirap District Gazetteer is soon coming out. This will be the second volume of District Gazetteers of Arunachal Pradesh — the first one on Lohit District was published during last year. The Gazetteer presents a comprehensive view of the life in Tirap District. The narrative covers a wide range of subjects and contains a wealth of information relating to the life style of the people, the geography of the area and also developments made so far in various sectors. The Tirap District Gazetteer, 1 hope, would serve a very useful purpose as a reference book. Raj Niwas R. N. Haldipur ltanagar-791111 Lieutenant Governor, Arunachal Pradesh May 6. 1980 PREFACE The present volume is the second in the series of Arunachal Pradesh District Gazetteers. The publication of this volume is the work of the Gazetteers Department of the Government of Arunachal Pradesh, carried out persistently over a number of years. In fact, the draft of Tirap District Gazetteer passed through a long course of examinations, changes and rewriting until the revised draft recommended by the Advisory Board in 1977 was approved by the Government of Arunachal Pradesh in 1978 and finally by the Government of India in 1979. The Tirap District is inhabited by a number of tribes, who have distinct tradition and culture of their own. The conditions of life in the hills and valleys, they lived in isolatedly for centuries, remained almost unchanged until the attainment of independence, ushering an era of progress and welfare in this area. Since 1947, an all-round development of great significance has taken place in the district in social, economic, political and cultural spheres. Our task to reflect all these important, facts and events on the gazetteer was far greater than our means. There is no old gazetteer of the district to be revised. We, therefore, make no>“tlaim that this volume is exhaustive, although utmost care was taken to write the gazetteer as comprehensively as the available material enabled us to do so. This publication presents the first gazetteer of Tirap District. It contains information dating from early times and covers statistical and other numerical data upto the year 1976-77. Some, more recent information is also incorporated. I would take this opportunity of expressing my deep gratitude to Shri K. A. A. Raja, former Lt. Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, for his kiild and valuable advice for improvement of this volume, and to Shri R. N. Haldjpur, the present Lt. Governor of Aruhachal Pradesh, who has kindly favoured us with a foreword of this gazetteer. I am also immensely grateful to Shri I. P. Gupta. Chief Secretary to the Government of Arunachal Pradesh and Chairman of the Advisory Board, for his kind help and guidance. vm I will be failing in my duty if I do not express my thanks to Dr. P. N, Chopra, M.A., Ph.D., Editor (Gazetteers). Government of India. Department of Culture and the staff of the Central Gazetteers Unit, Union Ministry of Education, New Delhi, for their effective role in planning and co-ordinating the work of preparation of tlie District Gazetteers. The Unit scrutinised the draft of this volume with great care and made several helpful sugges tions with a view to improving the standard and quality of the publication. The publication of this volume would not have been possible without the drafts prepared at first by Shri Parul Dutta, who was then Assistant Research Oflficer in Tirap, and later successively by Dr. H. Bareh and Shri S. M. K. Subhani, both of whom were Editor (Gazetteers), Arunachal Pradesh during 1965-66 and 1967-73 respectively. I am greatly indebted to all of them for their valuable contributions which enabled me to prepare the final revised draft of this gazetteer. I would express my grateful thanks to Shri R. Yusuf Ali, former Chief Secretary, for his appraisal of the d raft; Smti Vineeta Rai, the then Deputy Secretary (Political), for her valuable observations ; Shri T. P. Khaund. Secretary to Lt. Governor and Shri R. P. Rai, the then Eteputy Commissioner. Tirap District for the help given us. I am also _grateful to Shri L. N. Chakravarty, the then Director of Research ; Shri- Parul Dutta, now the Director of Research ; Dr. J. K. Barthakur, formerly Director of Census Operations, Arunachal Pradesh and Shri J. M. Syiem, the then Deputy Commissioner, Subansiri District, who had all painstakingly examined the draft and made constructive suggestions. I , am obliged to so many officers of various departments and district offices of the Government of Arunachal Pradesh for their contributions and co-operation that I feel 1 can hardly express in full measure my acknowledgement of debts to all of them. I would, in particular, thank Shri L. Massar, the then Extra Assistant Commissioner. Khonsa; Shri B. K. Ghosh, District Statistical Officer. Khonsa; Shri J. N. Chowdhury, an author and formerly the Librarian, Central Library, and Shri N. B. Mazumder. the then Statistical Inspector, Forest Department. I would also specially thank Shri I. N. Gohain, Shri A. K. Paul, Tabulation Officers and Shri K. J. Pandit, Artist, Directorate of Census Operations, Arunachal Pradesh, for the maps prepared by them. I am grateful to Shri B. Kakoti. the then Geologist (Sr.)-in-Charge. Geological Survey of India, Arunachal Pradesh Circle, for the report on geology and mineral resources ; and Dr. A. K. Ghosh, the then Officer-in- Charge. Eastern Regional Station. Zoological Survey of India and Shri M. Vasanth. a member of the staff of this station, for the information about fauna. I am indebted to Dr. S. K. Jain, the then Deputy Director, Botanical' Survey of India, Eastern Circle, for a review of the description of flora. 1 must also thank Shri B. B. Sen of the India Meteorological Department. New Delhi, for the climatological summary sent by him. The co-operation extended to us by the Directorate of Information and Public Relations, Government of Arunachal Pradesh, has been very helpful. I should like to express here my grateful thanks to Shri R. N. Bagchi. for the art work and cover-design ; Shri B, Goswami. Publication Officer, for the help rendered by him and the staff of the Photographic Section, for the illustrations. I would most deeply thank my colleagues, the officers and members of the staff of the Gazetteers Department; Shri C. K. Shyam. Compiler and Shri Kamalendu Ghosh, Research Assistant, in particular, for their contributions towards publication of this volume. Shillong S. D utta Choudhury May 15, 1980 PREFACE TO REPRINTED EDITION Etymologically a gazetteer means a geo^aphical dictionary which enfolds many more subject matter than mere geography. It presents in a schematic manner factual, objective and well-documented accounts of different facets of peoples’ life and indi cates the trend of socio-economic and cultural developments that take place in a re gion. In short gazetteer is a storehouse of valuable and worth knowing information relating to a district or a state for which it is written. It is a dependable source of information for the administrators and r^^earch-workers, for the readers at large, and the explorers and tourists seeking knowledge of people and place. The old district gazetteer of Tirap District published in 1980 contained very valu able information, which was not wholly re-produced in the revised volume. These gazetteers have gone out of stock and are not available. The scheme of reprinting of old gazetteers tvas taken up as there is great demand for these volumes by research scholars and educationists. The Tirap District Gazetteer was brought out under the editorship of Shri S. Dutta Choudhury. By this time, one more district, namely Changlang District (1987) have been created by curving out from Tirap District. Compilation works for bringing out separate district gazetteer for this district is being taken up. The volume is the reprinted edition of the Tirap District Gazetteer of 1980. This is the 2^ in the series of reprinted gazetteers of Arunachal Pradesh. Every care has been taken in maintaining the conqjlete originality of the old gazetteer while reprint ing. I extend my appreciation to Shri Hage Nobin, Compiler (Gazetteers); Chow Sujing Namchoom, Compiler (Gazetteers) and Shri Duyu Tale, Research Assistant (Gazet teers) who have handled the reprinting work of this volume with great c^e and effi ciency. ' I am also very much thankfiil to Himalayan Publishers and Printers, Itknagar and New Delhi for conq>leting the W rk of reprinting in very short tiitie. Itanagar SOKHEPKRI April 16, 2008. State Editor (Gazetteers) xt TABLE OF CONTENTS Pa'ge FOREWORD V PREFACE vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XV GUIDE TO SPELLING OF SOME PLACE AND RIVER NAMES MAPS Chapter I : GENERAL-PHYSICAL FEATURES AND NATURAL RESOURCES Acknowledsement I am immensely obliged to express my grateful thanks to Shri Y.D Tliongchi, Commissioner (Gazetteers), Government o f Arunacl Pradesh who perceived the importance of the wealth o f information cc tained in the Gazetteers and without whose support and encouragemt the publication of reprinting of old Gazetteers could not have been pi sible.