Ziro Valley

The Apatani occupy a flat valley at about 1,500 metres in Arunachal Pradesh, and their agriculture is studied because of how much it produces from a small area without ploughing, terracing or draught animals: rice paddies are managed with a system of channels and bunds, millet is grown on the bund tops, and fish are raised in the same flooded fields alongside the rice, all worked by hand. The valley is on the UNESCO tentative list for that system. Older Apatani women wear nose plugs and facial tattoos, a practice discontinued decades ago, so it is seen only in the eldest generation. The Ziro Music Festival runs each September.

What you actually see

• The rice-fish fields - paddies raising fish and rice together without ploughing.
• The bund millet - a second crop grown on the field embankments.
• The Apatani villages - bamboo houses in tight settlements among the fields.
• The music festival - the September event on the valley floor.

When to go

March to October; transplanting in spring and harvest in September are the most active field seasons, and the music festival falls in September. Winter is cold and the fields bare.

Honest expectations

An Inner Line Permit is required and foreign nationals face extra conditions. The road from Assam is long and rough. Photographing Apatani elders should always be asked for and often expects payment.

Nearby

North Lakhimpur lies south in Assam; Daporijo is east.