THE ❤️ OF ANINI

THE TOURISM "HEART" HAS travelled a long way. What began as an advertising campaign for promoting New York in 1977-I❤️NY-is now ubiquitous everywhere in India, from big metro cities (and even neighbourhoods) to smaller towns and villages tucked away in remote regions of the country.

- ANANDA BANERJEE

I was pleasantly surprised to see a I ❤️Anini sign in Dibang Valley, one of India's most prominent yet remote districts in Arunachal Pradesh. This district borders Tibet and has the least human density in the country.

This region lies in the far eastern part of northeast India and is the fabled land of the Idu Mishmi community, who can be distinctively identified among other tribal groups of Arunachal Pradesh by their typical hairstyle, distinctive customs and artistic pattern embedded on their clothes. They belong to the Mongoloid race and speak a distinctive dialect of the Tibeto-Burman language. This tribe takes great pride in preserving deep-rooted aesthetic values in their daily lives.

According to Mishmi mythology, the Mishmi people and tigers share a common origin, being born to the same mother. In the myth, the tiger is the elder sibling, while the Mishmi is the younger.

In a 2021 interview for an Outlook talk show series, I spoke with environmental anthropologist Ambika Aiyadurai, who shared this fable from her book, "Tigers Are Our Brothers: Anthropology of Wildlife Conservation in Northeast India" (2021):

One day, a younger brother hunted a deer and left it with his elder brother before going into the jungle to collect firewood. On his return, he was terrified to see his brother eating the meat raw. He told his mother that his elder brother was a tiger. 'If he can eat the raw meat, then one day he will eat me too,' he said. This became a serious concern.