TIWN
AGARTALA, July 17 (TIWN): Tripura Government wants to wean away tribals from jhum (shifiting cultivation) and settle them as farmers, as slashing and burning forests is a destructive practice, said a state minister.
Minister for Agriculture and Tribal Welfare department, Aghore Debbarma talking to TIWN at secretariat on Thrusday said, according to 2006 survey conducted by forest department there exists 27,433 hardcore jhumia families out 11,66,813 tribal population in the state.
The minister said to settle the jhumias, the government took series of initiatives – granting land deeds, constructing houses under IYA scheme, giving financial assistance for shifting towards horticulture and bamboo cultivation.
The government is now stressing on cultivation of horticulture and bamboo among the tribal population. Three blocks – Killa, Jampui and Mandwai have been selected for extensive bamboo cultivation. Two varieties of bamboo rhizomes were brought from China and Thailand, they are being distributed among the beneficiaries
Jhum cultivation or slash-and-burn agricultural system, also known as shifting cultivation, is an age-old agricultural practice by the ethnic tribal communities of uplands and it is still prevalent in all the northeastern states. The existing practice of jhum cultivation in Tripura and other north-eastern states of India has been identified as one of the anthropogenic and unscientific form of land use which is influencing the biodiversity to impede the ecological balance of the region.
Over the last few years emergence of a new class of shifting cultivators, who reduced the earlier 15–20 year cycle of shifting cultivation on a particular land to 2–3 years now resulted in large-scale of deforestation, soil and nutrient loss, and by the way affecting the indigenous biodiversity to a large extent.
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