Reacting to the report published in a blog on social media regarding two tourists who had claimed to have faced harassment recently, the Khonoma Youth Organization (KYO) and Eco-Tourism Management Committee, Khonoma (ETMC) has refuted such claims.
In a press note, KYO president Keviniso Meyase and ETMC chairman Methaheto Chase said that the two bodies held a meeting on September 30 2018 and deliberated on the write-up by Miss. Deborah Azzopardi from Malta.
Narrating the sequences of incidents, KYO and ETMC said Deborah’s write-up had “really messed things up by her indolent, deceitful behavior.”
They alleged that the couples (Deborah and Daryl Cauchi) infamous travelogue was full of lies, exaggerated incidents and having no connection to what they have actually encountered, but a deliberated attempt to malign the good reputation of Khonoma village (a tourist hotspot in Nagaland).
KYO and ETMC pointed out that the duo had never registered in this office as a tourist, which was mandatory for all tourists. The committee, which has been in existence for a long, registers the inflow of tourist into the village, it added.
They claimed that the “two intruders” on September 23, 2018 halted their bike in the middle of the road and happened to meet a local gentleman, who was a renowned person in the state for tourism etc. The local person politely gave necessary information, however the duo never came to the village nor did any initial /formal registration which all tourist are supposed to do, but they drove off straight towards Dzüleke. Pitched their tent wherever they like and spent the night over there, they said.
The next day, KYO and ETMC said upon seeing a tent randomly pitched in the middle of the Mithuns’ (Bos frontolis) path, which have the instinct to trace the same path while coming to regularly feast on salt, some youths approached them and had a long discussion and enquired whether they had registered themselves. The tourist instead got aggressive and replied to the youth using abusive words and tried to assault two youth, they claimed.
KYO and ETMC said despite being provoked, the five villagers neither raised their fist pointing at them, but rather it was Daryl who raised his fist pointing to the local people.
They said that the locals had never given them permission to them to pitch their tent and more over the tourists had also never sought any permission later as to where they should set up a tent.
KYO and ETMC said that the write-up was exaggerated “with full of lies as if there is no rule of law applied to them.”
It also said that the man whom they referred to holding a Bible was not at all a Bible but a Hymn Book and that he was not involved in the quibble and never met them, but was hundreds of kilometers away.
Reacting to the fictitious designation as “youth council president”, KYO and ETMC said Khonoma village does not have any such council. It also said that the KYO president was out of station at that point of time and was in no way involved in the incident.
KYO and ETMC alleged that the duo later left the same evening after “openly defecating and also leaving behind their trash/wastes at their campsite.”
In this regard, KYO and ETMC said that “the people of Khonoma have no better conclusion, but that they were some deceitful intruder though they may be boosting themselves as adventurous traveler. Hence, such irresponsible /uninvited guests are not welcomed even in the near future.”