Guwahati, May 16: Myriad hues of orchids will continue to adorn Ziro Valley, as it reverberates to the sound of music.
Along with the venue for the Ziro Music Festival, it is all set to become another valley of flowers in the hills of Arunachal Pradesh.
This centre of the unique fish-cum-paddy cultivation by the Apatani community in the state may become an orchid hub by March 2018.
The forest department has started a pilot project to translocate at least 100 rare and endemic species of orchids from unprotected areas to Talle wildlife sanctuary in Ziro Valley to preserve them and make the site a tourist attraction. "Ziro Valley has nearly 150 species of orchids but most are scattered in unprotected areas. We have a roadside tree with 18 species of orchids and if the tree is felled to widen a road, the orchids may disappear. So we decided to identify the rare and endemic species and translocate them to the wildlife sanctuary, which is a protected area," the divisional forest officer of Hafoli forest division in Lower Subansiri district, Koj Rinyo, told The Telegraph over phone today.
"We have already translocated 15 species and by October we hope to shift at least 60 more. We will skip the rainy season and hope to shift more than 100 rare and endemic species by March next year. Our purpose is to protect the orchids, preserve them, conduct research and make the Talle wildlife sanctuary more attractive for tourists," she said.
The 337 square km wildlife sanctuary has a large collection of flowers and clouded leopards. A tiger was also detected via camera trapping recently. "The blooming orchids are a treat for tourists. We hope they will add beauty to the sanctuary," Rinyo said.
Arunachal houses nearly 600 of the 1,300 species of orchids found in the country, some of which are very rare.
Several orchid species which have been translocated to the sanctuary since Friday are Liparis distans, Cymbidium elegans, Var elegans and Aerides longicornu.
The project is being undertaken by the Hapoli forest division in consultation with Naresh Swami, a research associate of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), a research organisation working for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Swami has been working in the area for three years.
Nearly 50,000 Apatanis inhabit the Ziro Valley landscape, nearly 5,700 feet above sea level. The unique fish-cum-paddy cultivation, traditional community irrigation system and the annual Ziro Music Festival attract tourists from across the country and abroad.
