Spic-Macay’s big plans for the Northeast

NEXT week onwards, Spic-Macay is starting a series of cultural programmes in the Northeastern region in association with several big names of Indian dance and music. They include Ustad Fahimuddin Dagar, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Malabika Mitra, Kapila Venu and Grammy award winner Viswamohan Bhatt, among others. Spic-Macay NE chairperson Nupur Buragohain said the organisation would hold as many as 100 shows and several workshops all over the region, while a reciprocal programme was also being drawn up to popularise Satriya dance and music of Assam in other parts of the country.

Arunachal: Preserving the Yak

SITUATED in the picturesque Eastern Himalayas, Arunachal Pradesh has taken up a special programme to preserve and increase its population of the yak (bos frontalis), an animal that provides the colourful tribal people milk and meat, apart from helping till the land for cultivation. The National Yak Research Centre, located at Dirang on the Tawang road, has drawn up an ambitious scheme to educate the people on better rearing of the animal that is so dear to them. The yak is held in such high esteem in tribal society that the prestige of a family is still ascertained by the number of animals it owns.