A journey into the forests of Nagaland

In India’s far northeast, Nagaland is a land of deep-rooted traditions and dramatic landscapes. Long known for their fierce independence and (former) headhunting culture, the Nagas now face a different struggle – to preserve the natural world around them.

Over the last few decades, tigers have vanished from these forests. Rivers have been sullied by dynamite fishing, and the forests, once abundant, have thinned due to logging and slash-and-burn farming. The bloody struggle for Naga independence from India – which claimed an estimated 200,000 lives – left a legacy of environmental degradation as well as political trauma.

Yet today, a quiet revolution is taking place. Across Nagaland, communities are reclaiming their forests and reviving custodianship of the land. Villages are working to instil ecological awareness in the next generation, while also providing alternative livelihoods for hunters.

In this 12-day journey we will explore the forests of the Naga Hills with the people fighting to preserve them and the life that lives within, alongside writer Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent, learning about the natural world through a literary lens.

Throughout the 12 days, we shall be accompanied by writer and broadcaster Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent. Antonia has herself travelled extensively in Nagaland, and has a passion for telling stories about conservation. Our time in the Naga Hills will be top-and-tailed with an exploration of Kolkata with local authors, and three nights in Kaziranga National Park in Assam, where Antonia will lead a three-part writing workshop.

Please contact us if you are interested in finding out more about this tour. 

Highlights

• Three nights deep in the Naga Hills;
• Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent accompanying the group;
• Writing workshops at the glorious Diphlu River Lodge;
• Exploration of Kolkata, incorporating time with local writers and feasts of authentic Bengali cuisine.

Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent

“I wanted to be puffing up hillsides, tramping through the jungle, splashing through rivers and drinking moonshine in villages miles from the nearest road.”

Antonia writes for The Guardian, The Financial Times and Geographical, and has presented a number of documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service. She specialises in telling stories about threatened people, places and wildlife. There’s nothing she loves more than travelling alone in remote regions – talking to people, hearing their stories.

Antonia’s first book – A Short Ride in the Jungle – recounts her 2000-mile journey on a Honda Cub, riding over the mountains of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In her latest book – Land of the Dawn-Lit Mountains – she again sets out into the wilderness on two wheels, meeting the shamans, lamas, hunters and opium farmers of Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast India.

In 2019, Antonia spent two months travelling by motorbike, boat and foot through Nagaland in India’s far northeast. Along the way, she met former headhunters, Baptist preachers, rebel commanders and conservationists, gaining a rare outsider’s insight into the Naga Hills. Pushing deeper still, she crossed into the remote Burmese Naga villages – places so hard to reach that, as one Naga told her, only “serious enemies or true friends” ever make it there.