Arunachal's Keyi Panyor charts path to become India's first bio-happy district

Keyi Panyor, among India's youngest districts in Arunachal Pradesh, is being developed as the country's first 'bio-happy district'. The initiative, rooted in the vision of late agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan, was highlighted by local MLA Toko Tatung at an international summit in Bhutan on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Global Conscious Food Systems Summit, hosted by the Royal Government of Bhutan, the Conscious Food Systems Alliance, and the United Nations Development Programme, Tatung represented the Nyishi community. He outlined a model that draws equally from scientists, farmers, universities, and traditional knowledge held by elders.

"The future has to be built when these forms of knowledge sit at the same table," Tatung said, emphasising that food systems are inseparable from soil, water, forests, and ancestral wisdom. He linked indigenous ecological knowledge to nutrition, livelihoods, and cultural continuity.

Tatung also connected the framework to climate justice, noting that communities contributing least to global warming often bear the harshest consequences. "When a flood enters a village, climate change is no longer an international negotiation," he said, describing the direct impact on fields, homes, livestock, and stored seed.

The bio-happy model is being pursued through the Keyi Panyor Mission Plan 2040, developed with the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and other partners. It aims to link biodiversity conservation with nutrition and human well-being, ensuring that conservation produces dignity and agro-ecology sustains livelihoods.

"Forests must remain standing, but communities who protect those forests must also prosper," Tatung added. The summit was attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, Sri Lanka Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, and former Ireland President Mary Robinson.