GUWAHATI: Village republics are back in parts of the Northeast. Village after village in Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh resorted to the age-old mechanism of putting up barricades to fence themselves to prevent the entry of coronavirus carriers from outside.
So far, the Northeast recorded two positive cases, one each in Manipur and Mizoram, but the panic is widespread.
“It (barricade) reminds me of our ancestors, who would wait and guard the village in their traditional fort vigil for enemies during the head-hunting era,” Sanen Pongen, the chairman of Chuchuyimlang Village Council in Nagaland’s Mokokchung district, said.
He said the villagers were keeping vigil to ensure that “no outsider, including our own citizens settled in various towns and cities or abroad, enter our village with the deadly virus.”
The barricading will continue till the threat from the virus was completely over.
“Traders in Chuchuyimlang town bring essential commodities from Assam. I learnt on Wednesday that trucks were not allowed to load the items in Jorhat (Assam). The stocks in our market will exhaust in 15 days. We are worried,” he said.
Same is the case in Arunachal’s East Siang district. Nobody is being allowed to enter or leave the villages.
This customary self-restriction is called “motor or pator system” in Adi dialect. Authorities in the villages passed instructions on the locals to keep their houses and surroundings clean.
Matung in Tamenglong district is one of Manipur’s many villages where residents put up similar barricades.
On Wednesday, a team of health officials were not allowed to pass through the village despite the District Magistrate informing village authorities about the visit. In the state’s Kamjong district, almost all villages have put up barricades.
“As we don’t have access to proper healthcare facilities, only we have to take care of ourselves. If one person gets infected, the whole village will be finished,” said Yarmatai, the president of Raizan Students’ Union.
Similarly, locals kept Hatkhola village in Assam’s Baksa district out of bounds for outsiders.
“We have closed all roads leading up to Hatkhola to prevent the entry of COVID-19-infected people,” said a villager.