Itanagar, Dec. 18: The unique heritage of the Apatani plateau in Arunachal Pradesh lies in its ancient customs which form the basis of the eco-preservation efforts in the land of the three tribes.

The Arunachal Pradesh government has moved the Centre for Unesco’s World Heritage Site status for this remarkable place in the Lower Subansiri district.

A three-year, Rs 3-crore project — for biodiversity conservation through community participation and natural resource management — of the World Wide Fund for Nature has already started at the places inhabited by the Apatani, Nyishi and hill Miri tribes, who form the dominant population of the Apatani plateau. The idea of the “mega cultural landscape” has been conceived by P.S. Ramakrishan, emeritus professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University who is also Unesco’s India coordinator.

The Apatani plateau — with a radius of more than 1,058km — lies around 5,000 feet above sea level and comprises the areas in and around the district headquarters of Ziro, Yazali and Yachuli. Ziro is nearly 300km from the capital Itanagar.

A “mega cultural landscape” is a region where different tribes live in same geographical vicinity and their lives are tuned to use of the natural resources around them. “All these tribes follow almost similar traditions and beliefs and hence the development of the area into a World Heritage Site will benefit the tribes,” said Shivaji Chaudhury, co-principal investigator of the project and a scientist with the Itanagar branch of the G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development.

Though the process for getting the Unesco tag is a lengthy one, the Arunachal government’s hopes were given a further boost after a team of the UN body visited the plateau recently and were “impressed with the culture and heritage of the tribes”.

“Unesco officials recently visited the area to monitor the progress and expressed their keenness to accord the area the status of World Heritage Site,” Chaudhry added. He said the Centre was readying the dossier for submission to Unesco for approval.

If it comes through, the Apatani plateau will be the third World Heritage Site in the Northeast after Kaziranga and Manas National Parks.

The Apatanis are one of the most advanced tribes in the state and have a unique paddy-cum-pisciculture and home bamboo plantations.