Nagaland gears up for Hornbill Festival as countdown begins

[caption id="attachment_281769" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Neiphiu Rio along with Tourism officials inspecting the ongoing renovation works at Kisama earlier this month. (Credit: Tourism department)[/caption] Our Correspondent Kohima, Nov. 9 (EMN):  With only 3 weeks left for the Hornbill Festival to begin, preparations at the Naga Heritage Village, in Kisama are underway. This year too, the Tourism department is aiming for zero-waste and assured “stringent” enforcement of ban on single-use plastic at the venue. On visiting Kisama on Saturday, it was noticed that except for a few tribal morungs, most of them were yet to begin repair works. Department of Tourism is expecting “full swing renovation” of morungs from Monday onwards. The Ao morung has been revamped already, and Angami morung is almost finished renovating. Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and Chief Secretary Temjen Toy have inspected the ongoing renovation works several times this month. Rio appreciated the Aos for completing their assigned task early and hoped that others will follow suit. Deputy Director of Tourism department, Veyielo Doulo told Eastern Mirror that preparations had started this month. Areas including first gate to arena, amphitheatre, children park have been cleaned up. On Saturday, Southern Angami Students’ Union had turned up to clean the surrounding, but rainfall forced them to call off the work. He added that 25 food stalls, besides morungs, will set up during the festival. For better coordination and hassle-free travel during the Hornbill Festival, Tourism department had conducted an orientation programme with taxi drivers under the banner of Regional Transport Office. More than 600 taxi drivers attended the programme, held at IG Stadium. Resource persons for the programme were from RTO, Tourism department, Traffic Police, and the Tourist Police. Another orientation programme will soon be conducted with the two-wheeler taxi riders, the officer said. This time around, the contact details of every homestay, hotel, taxi (four- and two-wheeler) will be made available, he added. On the new events for this Hornbill Festival, he said that there are many new things in store for the people. As for the Naga Style Wrestling Open Championship, an initiative of Nagaland Wrestling Association in collaboration with Tourism Department, participants from countries like Uzbekistan and Australia are expected. For Zeliang, Angami, and Chakhesang communities, number wrestlers are restricted to ten persons only, while there are no limits for other tribes. A separate celebration of Statehood Day will be held at the Secretariat Complex on December 1 in the morning, while the inaugural function of the festival will be conducted in the evening at 4pm at Kisama.