India, Nov. 17 -- The earthy scent of wild herbs hung in the early morning air along the winding paths of Philimi. Mist that engulfed the village in Nagaland's Zunheboto district clung to the surrounding hills like a secret. Our guide, an elderly herbalist whose decades of knowledge were etched into memory, suddenly stopped to point at a plant by the path. "Alphabo," he said, "for stomach aches. Chew the root, but not too much." The flowering plant was Bauhinia variegata. This was the beginning of a journey, one that took us through the villages of Viyili Kiyiqa, Litta and Philimi-home to the Sumi Nagas-listening to stories of plants, of healing, and of wisdom, as old as the forest itself. We had set out to document the ethnomedicinal pra...