Everyday life in the prohibited areas: a case of Idu-Mishmi borderscape of the Eastern Himalaya

This paper presents a spatial biography of the Idu-Mishmi situated at the India–China borderscape. It explores how the traditionally managed ecosystem is getting transformed with the onset of newer agencies, and modifying the human and natural systems. Hunting and trade have been significant practices among the communities which connected the people residing on both sides of the border. However, the traditional multispecies interaction has been disrupted because of some fascinating chronicles: (a) Dibang valley became geopolitically significant, (b) emergence of border and state institutions, (c) transforming from soft border to hard border, (d) settlement of military cantonment and establishment of protected areas, and (e) infrastructure development has constructed multiple forms of prohibited areas and shaped the everyday lives. The borderscape got a drastic flip after the India–China War of 1962. Even after, the cultural landscape is getting colored largely as the securitized landscape. Hunters continue to operate and have informal interactions among themselves in the upper reaches of the Dibang Valley. What has been the ethnic cultural landscape got additional identity of being a sensitive borderscape and a biotic province. This study employs participatory rural appraisal (PRA) to understand how the ‘biogeopolitics’ helps the state to control and secure the sensitive border space.