Dzukou Valley: The mystic valley of rare Dzukou lily

It is a long trek till the base-camp and fraught with many perilous patches. It is advisable to be in a group as you can be of assistance to each other. One tiny slip and you roll down into a bottomless gorge.

The valley wears a lush green view because of typical bamboo shrubs that grow in abundance there. Some research claimed that the fast growing bamboo variety has in fact been affecting the already endangered Dzuku lily.

We spent the whole day before returning to the base camp. It was our last night and we could not help ourselves to shake our already tired legs to the beat of a Naga folk song, my local friends sang. It said, “No matter how tired or scared you are, you must go on.”

Dzokou means 'cold water' in local Angami dialect, much like the ice-cold stream that runs through the valley. Folklore and fables are abundant with stories of travellers and explorers being mesmerized by the pristine beauty of this valley. And I couldn't have agreed more.

As the clouds slowly began creeping into the valley, the cadence of the fast moving river, the drizzle and a huge cross-shaped structure on a distant hill cliff painted a perfect frame of what anyone could imagine of ‘Paradise’.