Why Mechuka Trout Quest is drawing anglers to Arunachal Pradesh

Neega Ngurang began fishing as a child, “local style” with a “bamboo pole rod, using a single monoline and one hook,” recalls the sports angler, river guide, and content creator from Sagalee, near Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh.

In 2013, he discovered angling and was hooked — pun intended. “I did not know what sport fishing is, but when I saw a spinning rod on television, I realised that I also wanted to buy it and learn how to use it,” says Neega, who spent the next two years practising angling in the rivers in and around where he lived. “As I gained experience, I also picked up the catch-and-release technique used in sport fishing, and began attending competitions, starting from 2016 or 17,” he says.

Today, he runs training programmes on angling and also a popular fishing YouTube channel, Neega Fishing Adventures, through which he educates people about the sport, which he insists is addictive. “You have to experience it to understand. It is really fun.”

Angling in the hills

Neega was recently in Mechuka to attend the second edition of the Mechuka Trout Quest, the annual angling championship, held between July 25 and 26, which saw 56 elite competitors from within and outside the country, including Bobby Satpal, widely recognised as one of India’s top fly anglers, and Tup Meesupwatana, a popular professional angler and YouTuber from Thailand.

Organised by the State’s Department of Tourism, the Mechuka Trout Quest is envisioned as a flagship international angling event “designed to position Arunachal Pradesh as a leader in high-value, low-impact eco-tourism”, according to the pre-event press release. “The landscape is already endowed with Nature, and we have many places to visit,” says Pasang Dorjee Sona, the local MLA and the State’s Tourism Minister who also serves as the Minister of Education, Rural Works, Parliamentary Affairs and Libraries. “That is why this idea came up,” he says.

Fishing as a sport

Fishing is deeply tied to human history, going back at least a couple of million years: early humans likely caught animals with bare hands and later, crude spears. Evidence of line fishing for food emerged atleast around 23,000 years ago, as shown by mollusc hooks recovered from the Jerimalai Cave in East Timor, though the first mention of sport fishing would come much later, in the 15th-century book A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, written by Juliana Berners.

“I think it is human nature, which is why so many people take up the sport,” says tournament director Derek Dsouza, the India representative of the International Game Fishing Association (IGFA), who became involved in the initiative a couple of years ago, when Dr Gebu Sona, a doctor from Tato and an avid angler himself, got in touch with him.

Though traditional line and net sustenance fishing is and has been prevalent in India for millennia, angling as a recreational sport is a relatively modern phenomenon here. First practised by homesick British officials, it is now an emerging sport in the country, with interest in it growing, says Derek, who believes that “we have a huge potential in India because we have a large coastline and a lot of big rivers”.

In recent years, Arunachal Pradesh, particularly Mechuka, has been on the map of the angling community, with anglers being especially drawn to the trout found here. Among the popular game trout are the brown and rainbow trout, both of which were introduced by the British to India in the 19th and 20th Centuries. “Mechuka is one of the few places in Arunachal Pradesh where we have trout. The climatic conditions are conducive because it is a cold-water fish,” explains Fisheries Minister Gabriel Denwang, adding that the State plans to invest heavily in trout farming. “It would help us boost tourism in this area. That is what we are targeting for.”

Trout tourism

The pine-studded, emerald slopes of the Eastern Himalayas loom as Sonam Tshering reels in a brown trout, the early morning sun gleaming off its tawny, speckled body. He then scoops the fish into a soft net and gently unhooks it before crouching in the pellucid waters of the Yargyap Chu River, live fish in damp hands, to pose for a photograph taken by a waiting marshal. A sudden splash as the fish is released and quickly skitters away, while Sonam straps the net to his back and wades back deeper with his rod, all ready for his next catch.

But it is not the actual catch that draws Sonam to the sport. “I just like the experience,” says the Bhutanese angler, who participated in and won the fly fishing category at the Mechuka Trout Quest this year. “I enjoy being in Nature, wading through the water, learning about the river structures and trout behaviour.”

Nasreen Sultana Naaz, the sole female angler among the participants, echoes Sonam’s view. “The best part about angling is that I get to travel and see all these beautiful destinations. We all live chaotic, urban lives, but once you come to an angling spot, it is completely different,” says the Gauhati-based indie rock musician, who was drawn to angling when she began accompanying her husband, also an angler, on various fishing trips. “I am now hooked on the game,” says Nasreen.

Like Sonam and Nasreen, most anglers love coming to off-beat places like Mechuka to fish, says Derek, who believes that angling can indeed play a significant role in boosting sustainable ecotourism. “Anglers don’t need to have expensive accommodation, just a pristine river. And if they have that, it could lead to a significant economic boom in a place,” he says, pointing out that anglers are largely fairly responsible tourists, who ensure that they keep their surroundings clean, respect Nature and are willing to pay well for an angling experience. “That is the tourism required here,” he says.

Minister Dorjee Sona, too, is aware that tourism models need to be developed very carefully in a State like Arunachal Pradesh, which, like most of its northeastern counterparts, is ecologically fragile and vulnerable to large-scale development. “We want to have niche tourism only. I’ve been very vocal about saying that, and the best part is our people are also aware of this,” he says. Instead, they are targeting a very specific sort of tourist: “the adventure seekers,” he says. According to him, the Government is also now focused on creating better infrastructure for adventure sports like kayaking, mountain biking, mountaineering and, of course, angling. “We got a lot of attention for angling, so we are taking it forward,” he says.

Based on the success of the first two editions of the trout quest, it now looks likely to be a permanent fixture on the angling map. “Everyone absolutely loved it, including people from other parts of Arunachal who had never come to this part of the state,” says Derek, who noticed that many of the participants had also attended the first edition. “Everyone wants to come back, including the people from Bhutan and Jammu and Kashmir for whom getting here is a challenge,” he says. ‘I think if we continue the same path we are going and get more people’s support, this could be one of the best trout destinations in the world. “

The writer was at Mechuka on the invitation of the Arunachal Pradesh’s department of tourism