TODAY -
Greening the 'blue hills'
The Statesman | ninglun hanghal | Jun 5, 2011
For the first time, India hosted World Environment Day 2011 on 5 June and this year's theme – "Forests: Nature at Your Service" – serves to link the quality of life with the health of forests and the ecosystem, along the lines of the United Nations' International Year of Forests.
Forests cover 21 per cent of India's total geographical area, of which 25 per cent lies in the North-eastern states. Also called the "blue hills", these are home to over 32 million indigenous people, known as Schedule Tribes (1991 Census). Pressure has been mounting on these states and practitioners of jhum cultivation to break with a tradition that is perceived as primitive and backward.
A study of shifting cultivation in North-east India by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development observed that the common stereotype of tribals engaged in wanton destruction of forests was a misunderstanding and misinterpretation.
For tribal jhum cultivators, forests are not merely a livelihood, an economy, but a way of life ~ part of culture, tradition and heritage. Greening these "blue hills" of North-east India calls for an in-depth understanding of "traditions" such as shifting cultivation, and capitalising on the knowledge handed down rather than forcefully pushing for change that would probably put tribal farmers and biodiversity on the brink of existence.
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* * H/T to hanghal(dot)ninglun(at)gmail(dot)com for sending this link. This Post is uploaded on June 06 2011.
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