Meet Aku Seyie, the Naga whose viral video brought national attention to Dzukou Valley fire

KOHIMA: For 46-year-year old Aku Seyie last Tuesday (December 29, 2020) began like any other day. The Zakhama native woke up at 6 am and immediately dashed off to help a neighbour build his house.

"In our village, we have a tradition -- whenever somebody builds a house, all of us lend our hands for at least 2 days. Most people don't even require labourers. So that was what I was doing on that fateful day on the 29th of December," Aku told Inside Northeast.

Around 1 pm in the afternoon, when he went to wash his hands, the Angami Naga saw the fire from the distance. "It was frightening beyond belief and huge plumes of smoke were billowing up into the sky. The fire was around 6 kms away from my house when I saw it. The scariest part about it was that the ashes were flying everywhere -- on the roofs of our houses, on our faces, everywhere," Aku Seyie recalled with horror.

Aku, an active social media user, immediately shot a short video using his Oppo cell phone and uploaded the video in the group called 'Naga Hills'that has over 60k subscribers. "When I first saw the fire, I knew that it was a serious deal. Therefore, I posted the video and appealed for help. In the first video that went viral, you can clearly hear my pleas for help", he said.

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Immediately, the video blew up like wildfire, and the blaze in the picturesque location also caught the attention of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, thanks to efforts of Inside Northeast. Significantly, our's was the first media platform to file a report on the deadly fire based on Aku's video which was brought to out attention by alert citizens.

"The next day, when I saw choppers being brought in to douse the flames, I was extremely happy and relieved, for I believed that my cries for help had reached the right ears," Aku told us, satisfaction evident in his voice.

Aku, who describes himself as a "consultant" and has a company based in China, informed us that most of the fire appears to have been doused. "Today, we could not see much smoke, which probably means that the fire has been extinguished to a great extent. NDRF, police, volunteers, and firemen are still there and today also, choppers passed overhead, presumably ferrying water to the raging wildfire. For my part, I am simply glad that I was able to bring attention to the blaze through social media," the Zakhama native said, with a hint of pride and satisfaction in his voice.

By: Rana Pratap Saikia

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