Ziro – Arunachal Pradesh

Ziro is a town and the district headquarters of the Lower Subansiri district in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. It is included the Tentative List for UNESCO’s World Heritage Site for the Apatani cultural landscape.[1][2][3][4] The part of the town which is the centre of economic activities and where the administrative offices are located is called as Hapoli or locally known by the Apatanis as “Hao-Polyang”.

Ziro is 115 km from Itanagar, 123 km from the nearest civil airport at Lilabari, 96 km from Naharlagun railway station.[citation needed] IAF’s ALG airstrip is at Ziro.[5][6]

Geography
Ziro is the district headquarter of Lower Subansiri district and is one of the oldest towns in Arunachal Pradesh. It is located at 27.63°N 93.83°E[7] at an elevation of 1688 metres (5538 feet) to 2438 meters (8000 feet). Its cool weather in summer is its major attraction. It is famous for its surrounding pine-clad gentle hills and its rice fields. Ziro is home to the Apatani tribe

Climate

The climatic condition of the district varies from place to place as well as season to season. Its climate is largely influenced by the nature of terrain depending upon altitude and location of the place. It could be broadly be divided into four seasons in a year:

The cold weather season is from December to February
March to May is the pre-monsoon season of thunderstorms
The southwest monsoon from June to about the middle of October
The second half of October to November, which constitutes the post-monsoon or the retreating monsoon period and is a period of transition

In the foothills or low high belt area of the district, the climatic condition is moderate in comparison to high belt areas, where during winter it is very cold and chilly, and in summer is pleasant. December and January are generally the coldest months, and July and August are warmest months.

Annual rainfall in the south is heavier than that in the northern areas of the district. During the monsoon period, more than 70 percent of the rain over the southern half occurs while in the northern portions it is about 60 percent. Variability of rainfall for the monsoon and the year, as a whole, are relatively small. Average annual rainfall of the district headquarters, Ziro recorded as 934.88 cm during 2000.

The relative humidity is always high throughout the year except in the winter months being slightly less humid. In the cold season, the sky is obscured on many mornings due to lifted fog which clears with the advance of the day generally, moderately clouded in the period of March to May, heavily clouded to overcast in the monsoon season and clear or slightly clouded during the post-monsoon season. Winds are generally light strong katabatic winds down the valleys are experienced as the local effect produced by the nature of the terrain.

Transport

Ziro is around 115 km from the state capital Itanagar and takes approx 3 and a half hours via the improved Hoj-Potin road along NH229 and 150 km via the Assam route. Earlier the nearest railway station from Ziro was located at Naharlagun in Arunachal Pradesh near the Arunachal-Assam border which is around 100 km from Ziro. The nearest airport to the settlement is Lilabari, in North Lakhimpur district of Assam (India).[citation needed]

Ziro is also an Advance Landing Ground (ALG) of Indian Air Force.[5]