MAMIT (MIZORAM)
Manning a “check-gate” at Zamuang on northern Mizoram’s border with Assam for 12 hours in turns takes some quality time away from their areca nut plantations for Biakdika and four others. It is a small price to pay, they say, in the battle to protect their livelihoods from a threat smuggled in through the State’s southern and south-eastern border with Myanmar – dried areca nuts from Southeast Asia.
The gate set up by the Hachhek Areca Nut Farmers’ Association (HANFA) to ensure no vehicle carrying smuggled dried areca nut to Assam and elsewhere in India is also a message for whichever party forms the government in Mizoram after the November 7 elections: set up similar checkpoints along the 510-km Mizoram-Myanmar border to not let dried areca nuts enter the country illegally.
