Nagaland Hornbill Festival

#GS-01 Art & Culture

State Hornbill Festival:

The Festival is celebrated in Nagaland to encourage inter-tribal interaction and to preserve, protect and revive the uniqueness and richness of the Naga heritage.
It is one of the largest indigenous festival organised by the state government of Nagaland to promote tourism in the state.
This festival usually takes place between the 1st and the 10th of December every year in Kohima.
Hornbill Festival is held at Naga Heritage Village, Kisama which is about 12 km from Kohima.
The Hornbill is a common bird among the folklores and tribes of Nagaland and can be commonly seen prancing around in the forests of Nagaland.

The hornbills (Bucerotidae) are a family of birds found in tropical and subtropical Africa and Asia.
India is home to nine species of hornbills.
The great hornbill is the state bird of Arunachal Pradesh and Kerala.
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the Great Indian Hornbill as vulnerable in the Red List of Threatened Species.

Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation, is a pressure group representing the state’s backward, hilly regions.

Frontier Nagaland is a proposed new state comprising six backward districts of the Nagaland.
The demand for a separate state, which was formally raised in 2010, comprised six districts of Nagaland, 20 of the 60 Assembly seats and a population of about 10 lakh.
The ENPO had earlier decided not to participate in the State’s flagship Hornbill Festival that starts on December 1.