Zealous missionaries have produced a highly literate population in Meghalaya that has happily adopted leather jackets and MTV.
"In Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, poverty in 2009-10 has increased, " the commission said in a statement.
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Four tribespeople have died in violence on the border of the north-eastern Indian states of Assam and Meghalaya.
Wildlife officials say in the last two years elephants have killed at least 180 people in Assam and Meghalaya.
Meghalaya's enormous forest cover is community-owned, but timber merchants often bypass the local leaders to strike up deals with foresters.
For the moment, the people in Meghalaya have simply voiced their concerns.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi have both appealed for peace and hundreds of armed policemen and border guards have been sent to the area.
We have worked in partnership with local governments to begin installing these units in the State of Meghalaya in India, and there are plans to install more throughout other parts of India and Southeast Asia.
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On Thursday, thousands of Garos armed with machetes, locally-made guns and spears descended from the East Garo Hills district of Meghalaya into Assam's Goalpara district and set fire to hundreds of houses in seven Rabha villages around the Krishnai area.
"If India continues to go soft on Bangladesh, the time might come when border villagers in the region would be forced to take up arms and go underground to defend themselves, " Manik Syiem, a resident of the Indian border state of Meghalaya, said.
They are perfectly happy to let the Syiems carry on with their cultural functions. (Most senior officials including the Chief Minister and the Governor of Meghalaya turned up at the Nongkrem dance.) But when it comes to the actual business of governance, such as law enforcement or revenue collection, they are a little patronizing about the authority of the Syiems.
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