Arunachal’s Keyi Panyor plans to be India’s first ‘bio-happy district’

MLA Toko Tatung spoke at an international summit in Bhutan. Credit: X/@tokotatung GUWAHATIArunachal Pradesh’s Keyi Panyor, one of India’s youngest districts, is being developed as the country’s first ‘bio-happy district’.Keyi Panyor’s experiment with bio-happiness is associated with the vision of the late M.S. Swaminathan, global leader of the Green Revolution, local MLA Toko Tatung said at an international summit in Bhutan on Tuesday (September 1, 2026).The Global Conscious Food Systems Summit, hosted by the Royal Government of Bhutan, the Conscious Food Systems Alliance, and the United Nations Development Programme, brought together leaders, indigenous representatives, scientists, and development practitioners.Attending the summit as a representative of the Nyishi community, Mr. Tatung said the bio-happiness model was based on drawing on the knowledge of “our scientists, our farmers, our universities, and our grandmothers”.“The future has to be built when these forms of knowledge sit at the same table,” he said.“Food begins with soil. It needs water. It depends upon forests and biodiversity. It carries the knowledge of our ancestors. It determines the nutrition of our children. It creates livelihoods. It carries our culture,” Mr. Tatung said, linking indigenous ecological knowledge to food systems and climate justice.“When a flood enters a village, climate change is no longer an international negotiation. It is somebody’s field, somebody’s house, somebody’s livestock, somebody’s stored seed, somebody’s entire year of work,” he said, stressing that communities contributing least to global warming often face its sharpest consequences.The MLA said the bio-happy model pursued through the Keyi Panyor Mission Plan 2040 is being developed in collaboration with the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and other partners, linking biodiversity conservation with nutrition, livelihoods, and human well-being.“Conservation must also produce dignity. Agro-ecology must also produce livelihoods. Local food must also produce good nutrition. Forests must remain standing, but communities who protect those forests must also prosper,” he said.Among those who attended the summit were United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, Sri Lanka Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, and former Ireland President Mary Robinson. Published - September 02, 2026 06:51 pm IST