THE SIGNS

The Sumi Naga tribe has developed a whole portfolio of ecological indicators to help predict weather. The lack of documentation and loss of biodiversity puts this traditional knowledge at risk of extinction

- ALINO SUMI

HOOLOCK GIBBON

A high-pitched shriek by the hoolock gibbon (Hoolock hoolock) warns of heavy rains within a few hours, even on a sunny day

BAMBOO Sudden, gregarious flowering of the Bambusa pallida species of the bamboo that is native to Nagaland indicates famine. Its bloom attracts rodents that damage crops

CUCKOO Farmers listen for the song of the cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) during the summer, as it tells them to start sowing seeds for the forthcoming agricultural season

ONE BRIGHT sunny morning, residents of Shiyepu village in Nagaland’s Zunheboto district, head to church dressed up in their Sunday best, and carrying umbrellas. The latter accessory is perplexing, given the clear weather. But the church-goers know something that even weather forecasters do not—bees in the village (both Asiatic honeybee or Apis cerana and stingless bee or Trigona iridipennis) did not leave their hives that morning, indicating a prospect of rain. Sure enough, it soon starts to drizzle.

This premonition is just one bit of a vast body of knowledge that the Sumi Naga tribe has gathered through generations of observation and passed down orally and through cultural practices.

But there is little to no documentation about this traditional knowledge, and so it is at risk of being lost. As a Ph.D. scholar at Martin Luther Christian University in Shillong, I undertook a study of 10 villages in Zunheboto,which is primarily inhabited by the Sumi Naga tribe. Over three years, I recorded 79 ecological indicators (biotic and abiotic) that the community depends on to determine whether anomalies, seasons, and natural disasters, even in the age of complex numerical climate models.