The range of ecological dynamics the Apatani manage could make a professional ecologist tizzy. But even more mind-boggling is the range of socio-political dynamics that the people of the valley deal with and yet remain distinct. Till a few decades back, the Apatani valley was cut off from the rest of the world. They did deal with tribes uphill and the people downhill but their world was restricted. Austrian anthropologist Christoph von Furer Haimendorf, a frequent visitor to the valley, writes: "In early 1944, the influence of government reached no further than a few miles beyond the inner line (the official line beyond which outsiders have to take permits to enter the Apatani valley). The Apatani... had no contact with government officials. By May 1945, the picture had completely changed