An application seeking Geographical Indication (GI) tag for the Arunachal Pradesh Apatani textile product has been filed by a firm, Zeet Zeero Producer Company Limited. The Apatani weave comes from the Apatani tribe of Arunachal Pradesh living at Ziro, the headquarters of lower Subansiri district. The woven fabric of this tribe is known for its geometric and zigzag patterns and also for its angular designs.
According to the application filed with the Geographical Indications registry in Chennai, the Apatani community weaves its own textiles for various occasions, including rituals and cultural festivals. The tribe predominantly weaves shawls known as jig-jiro and jilan or jackets called supuntarii. The people here use different leaves and plant resources for organic dying the cotton yarns in their traditional ways. And only women folk are engaged in weaving.
Easy to install
The traditional handloom of this tribe is a type of loin loom, which is called Chichin, and is similar to the traditional handloom of the Nyishi tribe. It is portable, easy to install and operated by a single weaver, especially the female member of the community.
Legal protection
Getting a GI tag for a product indicates that it originates from a particular territory in India and has unique characteristics or quality. Having a GI tag for a product prevents unauthorised use of a registered Geographical Indication by others, boosts exports of Indian Geographical indications by providing legal protection and also enables seeking legal protection in other WTO member countries. Some of the examples of Geographical Indications in India include basmati rice, Darjeeling tea, Kancheepuram silk saree, Nagpur orange and Kolhapuri chappal.
