Introduction
Jhum cultivation is one of the oldest farming systems practiced in the tropics and subtropics (areas of high rainfall, moderate temperature, and steep slopes) since Neolithic times (1300-3000 BC). According to the findings of the Central Forestry Commission of India in 1984, 6.7 million hectares of arable land were affected by jhum in the country. The people of northeast India practice jhum cultivation on the slopes of the hills. Jhum cultivation contributes 85% of the total cultivation in Northeast India. The population explosion and the rise of a new generation of young farmers encouraged a growing demand for arable land, resulting in a reduction of the cropping cycle from 25-30 years to 2-3 years due to frequent abandonment and reoccupation of land in fallow. The 20-30 year fallow cycle that prevailed during the previous period helps the land return to its natural condition after anthropogenic disturbances. But due to the shortening of the cycle to 2-3 years, the resilience of the ecosystem is interrupted and the quality of the land worsens day by day.
What is Jhum cultivation?
For jhum cultivation, farmers generally select a patch of forest and cut down the vegetation usually between the months of December and January. After that, they burn the vegetation as per their requirements. Small portions of cut logs and vegetation roots are not normally removed during this practice. Herbs, shrubs, and branches and branches (cut vegetation) are burned between February and March. The seeds are sown during the month of April and May. The farmers will continue jhum cultivation for a few years and will leave the cultivated area and continue the search to switch to a second forest site. After leaving the second site, they will return to the previous site and once again practice jhum cultivation on it. From an erosion point of view, the second year of the jhumming cycle is more dangerous than the first year.
Jhum cultivation in TRIPURA
As part of their tradition, most of the Tripura tribes practice shifting cultivation or jhum as their main source of livelihood and are popularly known as jhumias.
According to the 2007 Tripura Human Development Report, significant populations in Tripura rely primarily on forests and jhum cultivation as their main source of livelihood.
According to JB Ganguly (1969), by 1961 there were around 25,000 families practicing jhum cultivation in the state. By 1978 this number had increased to 46,854 families, of which some 23,292 families depended mainly on jhum for their livelihood. In 1987, the estimate was revised to 49,800 families who were more or less dependent on jhum cultivation for their livelihood. According to the report of the Department of Tribal Welfare of the Government. of Tripura in 1999, 51,265 families depended on jhum cultivation. The number of Jhumia families was found to be highest in Dhalai and the Southern District. The Department of Forests, Govt. of Tripura, in its first census of hardcore swidden cultivators in the state in 2007, found 27,278 households (or 1,36,000 people) dependent on jhum cultivation.
Jhumia settlement initiatives in Tripura
Although there is a clear decrease in the number of jhumia families in Tripura state, there are still a good number of families continuing to farm jhum in the state. Nearly 10 percent of the forest area is under jhum or shifting cultivation in the state. The first attempt at settlement of Jhumias in Tripura began in 1930-31, when Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya set aside an area of 28,490 ha in the Khowai Subdivision, called the Kalyanpur Reserve, for the settlement of Jhumias families. In 1943 the area was increased to 505,053 ha and the Department of Immigration and Reclamation was opened again to develop the vast tracts of wilderness to populate those areas. Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya also developed a general policy to investigate the need for jhumias to move to settled plow cultivation and the State Tenancy Act (Tenants and Landlords Act, 1886) supported jhumias with a special incentive to continue cultivation. cultivation with a plow. But these efforts proved to be unsuccessful in solving the problem of jhumia settlement in the state.
Systematic efforts to control jhum cultivation and settle jhumias in the state began in 1953, with the adoption of a two-dimensional (short-term and long-term) strategy to address problems related to the ecological balance and economic growth of the affected state. . by jhooming. The short-term approach included measures to improve Jhooming yields and relief measures pending their resettlement, while the long-term measures were designed to move the Jhumias away from Jhooming and resettle them through alternative occupations in the colonies especially established. Both these settlement and colonization schemes were part of the general strategy of the “swidden agriculture control scheme” initiated in the first period of the plan. Under the settlement scheme, each Jhumia family received suitable arable land for settled agriculture and a cash grant (Report of the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Tribes, 1955-56). The government has established a colony for the jhumias and has assigned a house to each family under the colonial scheme with the necessary facilities for their health, education, poultry breeding and marketing. Until the implementation period of the Ninth Five-Year Plan, more than 49,000 families rehabilitated with the help of agriculture settled in the state.
Main reasons to continue Jhum cultivation in Tripura
Adjustment issue with no tribes in populated area: Since the tribes are very fond of God, they faced difficulties in building a place of worship of a particular religion when there is a mixed population. The Tripura tribe are Hidus, Christians or Buddhists and there is also another religious group where they live. The socioeconomic conditions of the tribes also differ from those of neighboring non-tribes.
Lack of sufficient attraction to their colonial home.:
has. Colonies are not established according to the religion and culture of the tribes.
b. The rehabilitation of the tribal family is far from its original habitat
against Lack of social environment and freedom in the rehabilitation area.
d. Lack of special training for land cultivation plan.
financial problem: The government schemes are not enough to make them financially reliable to stay in the new colony for the first few years. According to the rehabilitation plans in the year 1953-54, each family was allotted 5 acres of arable land above a grant of Rs 500 to purchase the essentials to support cultivation. Outside of this cultivation, later rubber plantation was one of the important crops provided to them. But it took at least 7 or 8 years to become a mature productive plant to turn a profit. But they were neither financially strong nor savvy enough to seek an alternative source of income during that period.
Lack of proper education: Available data on student dropout in the state revealed educational waste at both the state and national levels. The primary stage dropout rate was estimated to be significantly higher in Scheduled Tribes than in the general category of pupils and Scheduled Castes. The same trends were also observed in the middle and secondary stages. This shows the unstable and pathetic conditions of the tribal communities in India.
conclusion
It is evident that jhum cultivation has an adverse effect on the species diversity of a region, as this unscientific form of agricultural practice continually degrades the quantity and quality of the natural habitats of various floras and faunas. The destruction of the natural habitats of living organisms that causes an ecological imbalance in the ecosystem is also prohibited by forest laws and laws. But still a good number of the new class of shifting farmers practice shifting agriculture in the northeastern states without realizing these facts. Now is the time to join hands to help people become educationally strong enough to understand existing ecological dangers, as well as to create strong awareness of the harmful effects of shifting cultivation among all tribes. and not Northern tribes. eastern region to restore the ecosystem of this potential hotspot region.