Khonoma Village

Khonoma is an Angami Naga village west of Kohima whose lands cover about 123 sq km. It is reckoned to be some seven centuries old, and its older name Khwunoria refers to a local shrub, Gaultheria fragrantissima. Today it is promoted as India's first green village because of the conservation work its residents took on themselves.

Between about 1830 and 1880 Khonoma's warriors held out against British forces for roughly half a century, inflicting heavy losses before a treaty ended the fighting in 1880. A stone tablet at Semomo Fort records the episode and honours those who died. The turn to conservation came in 1998, after villagers shot around 300 Blyth's tragopans in a single week of competitive hunting. Prompted by Tsilie Sakhrie and talks with forest officer T. Angami, the village council set aside roughly 20 sq km of village land, banned hunting there and named it Khonoma Nature Conservation and Tragopan Sanctuary; residents now report more wildlife, tragopans included.