Four activists held under the Arunachal Pradesh Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 2014 have been freed in Arunachal Pradesh. Adum Tayom, Omak Paron, Okut Paloh and Oson Paron left Jully Central Jail near Itanagar, about four weeks after being picked up on October 9. A day earlier the state government had said it would let them go, calling the step a gesture of goodwill. The Chief Minister's Office, in a letter signed by Principal Private Secretary Shibu Thomas, also cleared the return of gaonburas and gaonburis who had lost their posts over the agitation. Behind the protest is the Siang Indigenous Farmers' Forum (SIFF), which opposes the proposed 11,200-MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP). On the FIRs against protesters, the government's position is that any withdrawal has to go through the legal process. Six others are still in custody, and Pema Khandu is the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh.
Why it matters for exams: The Arunachal Pradesh Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 2014 is a State preventive detention law, and preventive detention itself is a frequent Polity question under Article 22.
Gaon buraVillage authority recognised by the administration — A traditional village head in Arunachal Pradesh, appointed and paid an honorarium by the district administration.
Ziro Valley, cut off topographically from the populated parts of the region, is the home of the Apatani tribe; it lies in the eastern Himalayas, on their lower ranges. Out of a plateau of 1058 km2, only about 32 km2 is cultivable, the floor undulated by small hillocks at 1525 MSL and the mountain tracts around it running from 1830 to 2900 MSL. The relatively flat land is given to wet-rice cultivation in which fish is reared as well, and the community has worked out a skill of rice-fish cultivation that is unique to it, paddy and fish sharing one field. Millet, Eleusine coracana, is raised on the elevated partition bunds between the rice plots. Soil fertility is held up year after year by recycling crop residues and using the organic wastes of the villages, while nutrients washed down from the hill slopes around nourish the fields. The institution behind all of it is the traditional village council called bulyañ, which supervises and guides the community and carries legal oversight over what individuals do that affects it. Oral history traces the settlement back at least twenty generations, and Tibetan and Ahom sources place the central tribes of these mountains here from at least the fifteenth century. As the Apatani Cultural Landscape, the valley has stood on the country's Tentative List since 2014, offered under the cultural criteria (iii) and (v).
Plateau area:1058 km2Cultivable area:about 32 km2On the Tentative List since:2014
Why it matters for exams: Rice-fish cultivation in the Ziro valley, millet on the partition bunds, and the Apatani village council called bulyañ are the facts that recur about the Apatani Cultural Landscape.
Namdapha National Park, with the Kamlang Wildlife Sanctuary and the Jairampur Forest Division beside it, lies in the north-eastern frontier State of Arunachal Pradesh. Patkai hills stand to its south and south-east, and the Himalaya to its north. It sits close to the Indo-Myanmar-China trijunction, and the forest runs on unbroken across the international boundary with Myanmar, where several adjoining protected areas include the Hukawng Valley Tiger Reserve. The ground is mountainous throughout, and the whole of it forms the catchment of the Noa-Dihing River; that river is a tributary of the Brahmaputra and flows westwards through the middle of the park. Heights inside it run from 200 m up to 4,571 m at Dapha Bum, the park's highest point, over terrain that is steep and hard to reach, so the interior and the higher parts have gone unexplored but for hunters from the local communities. The Kamlang Wildlife Sanctuary on its northern edge runs from 550m to 4200 m and falls in Lohit district. The park has stood on the country's Tentative List since 2006, offered under the natural criteria (vii), (ix) and (x).
Lowest point:200 mHighest point:4,571 m at Dapha BumOn the Tentative List since:2006
Why it matters for exams: Namdapha National Park's altitudinal range up to Dapha Bum, its Noa-Dihing catchment feeding the Brahmaputra, and its place near the Indo-Myanmar-China trijunction are the durable facts.
Arunachal Pradesh has no High Court of its own. The North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act, 1971 made the Gauhati High Court the common high court for seven States - Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura. An amendment passed in 2012 set up separate high courts for three of those States, namely Tripura, Meghalaya and Manipur. Cases pending in the Gauhati High Court from those States went across to the new courts. Each State was to bear the expenditure of setting up its own High Court. Arunachal Pradesh was not among the three, so it stays within the reach of the Gauhati High Court. The same amendment changed the Advocates Act, 1961 so that each of the three new States would have its own State Bar Council, and an advocate on the rolls was given a year to move his name across. The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha and passed by Parliament in 2012.
Act that set up the common high court:North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act, 1971High Court for Arunachal Pradesh:the Gauhati High CourtStates given their own High Courts:three in all: Tripura, Meghalaya and ManipurAct amended for bar councils:the Advocates Act, 1961
Why it matters for exams: The durable facts are the Act of 1971 that made one High Court common to seven States, the 2012 amendment that gave Tripura, Meghalaya and Manipur their own High Courts, the point that Arunachal Pradesh stayed with the Gauhati High Court, and the change to the Advocates Act for separate State Bar Councils.
Common high courtCommon high court for two or more States — One High Court exercising jurisdiction over more than one State or Union territory, a scheme the Constitution allows.
Permanent benchPermanent bench of a High Court — A bench that sits regularly away from the principal seat, so that litigants of that area need not travel to the main court.
State Bar CouncilState Bar Council — The statutory body that keeps the roll of advocates for a State and exercises disciplinary control over them.
Tawang is a district of fairly recent making. Until 5 October 1984 it was a sub-division of West Kameng District, and it became a district in its own right on 6 October 1984. Its earliest seat of administration dates to 1951. It was set up by Major Bob Khating, a Naga officer who belonged to the Indian Frontier Administrative Service. A district here is headed by the Deputy Commissioner, who is also the District Magistrate, and who looks after law and order, development work and justice. The Gauhati High Court supervises that judicial side, alongside customary regulations. Below the district come sub-divisions, and below them administrative circles; this district has three sub-divisions, Tawang, Jang and Lungla, and ten administrative circles in all. Kitpi and Tawang are the circles of the Tawang sub-division; Jang, Lhou, Mukto and Thingbu fall under Jang; Bongkhar, Dudunghar, Lungla and Zemithang under Lungla. Local government came in through the North East Frontier Agency Panchayat Regulation of 1967, and the three-tier set-up in this district counts 235 villages, 80 Gram Panchayats and 10 blocks, also called Anchal Samitis.
Tawang made a full district:6 October 1984District head:the Deputy Commissioner, who is also District MagistrateCourt that supervises:the Gauhati High CourtPanchayat law:the North East Frontier Agency Panchayat Regulation, 1967
Why it matters for exams: The durable facts are the ladder of district, sub-division and administrative circle, the Deputy Commissioner who is also District Magistrate, the supervision of the Gauhati High Court, and the North East Frontier Agency Panchayat Regulation as the source of the three-tier local government. The State's capital is Itanagar, in Papum Pare district, and the Deputy Commissioner (Capital) there covers
Administrative circleAdministrative circle — The smallest revenue and administrative unit in the State, below a sub-division, in the charge of a circle officer.
Anchal SamitiAnchal Samiti — The block-level tier of the panchayat system in the State, between the village and the district levels.
Zilla ParishadZilla Parishad — The district-level tier of the same system, above the Anchal Samitis.
Two passes govern the high road through this corner of Arunachal Pradesh. The first is Sela Pass, a high-altitude mountain pass at an elevation of 13,700 feet, ringed by snow-capped mountains and glacial lakes; it is the link that joins Tawang to the rest of India. Below it is the Sela Tunnel, 400 metres under the pass, which gives the road all-weather connectivity. It was built by the Border Roads Organisation as a strategic bi-lane tunnel, and it shortens the run from Dirang to Tawang by 10 km. The second is Bum La Pass, at 15,200 feet near the Indo-China border, and a visitor there needs an official entry permit from the district authorities. Nuranang Falls, also called the Jang Waterfall, makes a drop of 100 meters; it rises on the slopes of Sela Pass near Jang town, and a small hydel power unit there makes electricity for local use. On the main highway stands the Jaswantgarh War Memorial, which honours Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat; he served with the 4th Garhwal Rifles and showed supreme courage in the 1962 Sino-Indian War.
Sela Pass elevation:13,700 feetTunnel below the pass:400 metresBum La Pass elevation:15,200 feet
Why it matters for exams: The elevation of Sela Pass, the tunnel 400 metres below it built by the Border Roads Organisation, and the permit needed for Bum La Pass are fixed geography facts about Arunachal Pradesh.
Tawang Monastery stands in the Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh. India has no larger Buddhist monastery than this one, and only a single monastery anywhere in the world is bigger; its other name is Galden Namgyal Lhatse. It was founded in 1680-81 by Merak Lama Lodre Gyamtso, and it looks out over the Tawang Chu valley. In the same town, a stupa 40 feet high stands as the Tawang War Memorial, raised for the soldiers of the 1962 Sino-Indian War and holding historic weaponry, flags and military artifacts. An iron suspension bridge of the 15th century, the Chakzam Bridge, crosses the Tawang Chu River; the Tibetan engineer Thangtong Gyalpo built it. Among the high-altitude lakes nearby, Pankang Teng Tso Lake, known as P.T. Tso, lies 17 km from Tawang town, rhododendron groves around its basin and its water frozen over in the winter. Sangetsar Lake, also called Madhuri Lake, is a natural lake formed by an earthquake and shut in by snow-clad peaks and pine forest. Other gompas of the district carry the same tradition, among them Taktsang Gompa, the Tiger's Nest, the Brahma-dung-chung Ani Gompa that is a nunnery, and Regyaling Gompa.
Founded:1680-81Distance of P.T. Tso from Tawang town:17 km
Why it matters for exams: Tawang Monastery's other name, its founder, the valley it overlooks and its standing as the largest Buddhist monastery in India are standard questions on Arunachal Pradesh.
Until 1914 the area that is now East Kameng was part of the Darang District of Assam. A notification of that year placed it in the western Section of what was then called the North east Frontier Tract. The tract was renamed the Balipara Tract in 1919, with its headquarters at Charduar in Assam. In 1946 that ground was split into the Sela Agency and the Subansiri Area, and the headquarters stayed at Charduar. The Sela Agency became the Kameng Frontier Division in 1954, and its headquarters shifted to Bomdila. In 1965 the name was cut back to Kameng District. The bifurcation of 1980 produced two districts, East Kameng out of the Sepla subdivision and West Kameng out of the Bomdila subdivision, with Seppa as the headquarters of the first.
Before 1914:part of the Darang District of AssamRenamed in 1919:the Balipara TractHeadquarters of the Kameng Frontier Division:at BomdilaDistrict split into two:1980
Why it matters for exams: The durable chain is the one a question is built on: Darang District of Assam, then the North east Frontier Tract, the Balipara Tract with its headquarters at Charduar, the Sela Agency and Subansiri Area, the Kameng Frontier Division with its headquarters at Bomdila, Kameng District, and finally the two districts of East and West Kameng.
Solung is the chief festival of the Adi people of East Siang; its name comes from two words, one for the mithun, the main animal sacrificed at it, and the other for a group or herd of them. It is kept from 1st to 3rd September; unmarried girls perform the ponung folk dance while the Miri, the shaman, recites the origin of the Adis and of the animals. Unying, also called Aran, falls on 7th March as the season of shifting cultivation opens; the male members of a family go on a hunting spree and spend a week in the jungles. Etor, on 15th May, goes with the community fencing of farmland: youths dance the Delong in a Dere, also called a Musup, which is the community hall. Mopin on 5th April is the main festival of the Galos, who perform the popir dance and bless households. The Mishing tribe keeps Aliaye Legang as its main festival, so that the deities grant prosperity and a good harvest. In the Tapu War Dance, performed by only males during Aran, the dancers re-enact the actions of war to drive evil spirits from the villages. Women wear the Gale, a sarong, with the Galuk blouse; men wear the Lubling coat and the Ugon loin cloth with a neck ornament called Dudap, and the local drink Apong is made from fermented millet.
Chief festival of the Adi:the Solung festivalMain festival of the Galo:the Mopin festivalMain festival of the Mishing:the Aliaye Legang festival
Why it matters for exams: Which festival belongs to which people of Arunachal Pradesh - Solung to the Adi, Mopin to the Galo, Aliaye Legang to the Mishing - is a recurring State Focus question.