NH 39 is possibly India’s most dangerous highway.

The Rough Road  Find out what makes it so risky As far as national highways go, this is a short one. But the astounding array of ethnic and socio-political minefields it traverses through more than makes up for its modest 436 km. NH 39, which starts in Assam and winds through Nagaland to enter Manipur's trouble-torn hills before slicing through the Imphal Valley and going up through the hills again to end at Moreh along the Indo-Myanmar border, is like no other in India.      NH 39 is Manipur's lifeline, but also the state's source of great distress when it is blockaded by tribal groups to make their points. It is also one of the most decrepit highways, besides being perhaps the most unsafe. But for all its shortcomings, it passes through one of the most breathtaking landscapes.      Numaligarh, a refinery town in Assam's Golaghat district — about 250 km east of Guwahati — is where NH 39 originates. It slices through scenic tea gardens, idyllic hamlets and bustling towns before hitting the rough patch of Assam's Dima Hasao district, which is a simmering ethnic cauldron of warring tribes. This mineral-rich district dominated by the Dimasa tribe had, till very recently, been wracked by Dimasa insurgents demanding separation from Assam and by gory conflicts between its Dimasa, Naga, Kuki, Hmar and other tribes. A ceasefire between the government and the insurgents has ushered in tenuous peace, but the latter routinely extort 'taxes' from vehicles on NH 39. Incidentally, this is one of the relatively easier conflict zones on this highway. As it hits the plains again and reaches Dimapur, the commercial capital of Nagaland, the going gets tough. Dimapur, a civic disaster, was once the capital of the Dimasas, but was awarded to Nagaland when that state was carved out of Assam in 1963. This dusty and unplanned town is dominated by the Isak Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah-led faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim that has been in peace talks with Delhi following a ceasefire pact in July 1997. All vehicles entering Dimapur and travelling onwards on NH 39 are 'taxed' by this influential insurgent group that has its well-fortified HQ at Camp Hebron about 35 km from Dimapur and off NH 39.      Leaving Dimapur behind, NH 39 winds its way up the verdant hills of Nagaland that are frequently enveloped in slowly shifting veils of mist. The 74-km stretch between Dimapur and Kohima is full of hair-pin bends flanked by treacherous ravines and severely tests a driver's skills. NH 39 traverses 106 km through Nagaland.      The demand for Nagalim (presentday Nagaland and Naga-dominated districts of the three neighbouring states as well as Myanmar) becomes the bane of NH 39 as it enters Manipur through Mao Gate, about 32 km from Kohima. The Nagas, who dominate Manipur's Senapati district through which NH 39 passes, block the highway whenever any dispute with the Vashnavite Meiteis, who are the dominant community in the state but are concentrated in the 1843 sq km Imphal Valley that accounts for only 8.25% of Manipur's landmass, arises. When the Nagas block this lifeline, prices of food, fuel and all other commodities skyrocket. Last year, a 120-day blockade by the Kukis (another tribal group that had, in the 1990s, clashed with Nagas that claimed hundreds of lives) demanding a district be carved out of the areas they're concentrated in and a counter-blockade by Nagas caused a crunch of commodities and sent prices of LPG cylinders soaring to Rs 2,000. On an average, NH 39 faces disruptions about 60 days a year.      NH 39 ends at Moreh on the Indo-Myanmar border. Once a sleepy village, Moreh is now a bustling town where trade (much of it clandestine) worth Rs 50 lakh a day — export of Indian medicines, machinery, fuel and import of cheap Chinese goods — is conducted. It is mostly controlled by Tamils, settled here since the mid-1960s. India's 'Look East' policy envisages constructing a wide expressway from Moreh to Myanmar and beyond. It takes about 19 hours to travel from Numaligarh to Moreh. But with night travel out of the question on almost all stretches, the entire journey would take two days. And that makes NH 39 perhaps the 'slowest' highway in the country. And, of course, the most unsafe too. HORROR HIGHWAY: NH 39 has stayed in the news for blockades and violence