richard ranee rani belongs to the 50 or so families who live here in the mountains of cherapunji, in asks nature for her gifts, like the wild plants growing among the flower beds. these are garlic chives, which we eat. this is a wild edible. and then we have pineapples which we cultivate. during the months of september and october they're ready to harvest. and we cultivate pineapples on the edge of our plot. ranee's home village of nongtraw is remote, and anyone who wants to visit has to scale two and a half thousand steps. the inhabitants here are an indigenous people. through their traditional way of life, they make an important contribution to biodiversity. three quarters of meghalaya is forested, so people here grow their crops among the wild trees and shrubs. agro-ecologist gratia dhkar works for the north east slow food and agrobiodiversity society - or nesfas for short. the ngo wants to preserve the region's traditional cultivation and nutritional practices. so if we look at the way the indigenous communities have managed the food system, you will see a component of diversity