Shifting Cultivation in India

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Foreword The project entitled 'Shifting Cultivation in India' was initiated by the Anthropological Survey of India in 1976 to identify the zones under this primitive system of Landusage. Eleven research personnel, under the leadership of Dr. S. Bose, drawn from the Human Ecology Sections from the Headquarters and Regional Offices of Anthropological Survey of India carried out extensive field work in 12 states and surveyed intensively 10 tribal villages in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. The study has generated data on the problems posed by shifting cultivation and people's own ways of grappling with them. Shifting Cultivation as practised in different conditions in this country poses different sets of problems of man- environmental relationship and there cannot be any uniform prescription for all regions. The problems have to be tackled according to the ecology and cultural environment of the people involved in this method of cultivation. It is common notion that shifting cultivation des troys soil fertility and reduces forest area. The results of the regional and village level surveys, however, show that this system of cultivation results in degeneration of soll only under certain conditions. If due regard is paid to the nature of the soil, the slope of land, etc, and if sufficient time is allowed for regeneration of forest then the decay of the land can be prevented. But, faced with the mounting burden of overpopulation, the people exploit the land resources by disregarding conventional practices. It is only then that the degeneration of land assumes alarming proportions.

Preface In 1976 Dr. B. D. Sharma, the then Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, during a meeting in Calcutta suggested to Dr. K. S. Singh, the then Director of this Survey and to me to initiate a project on Shifting Cultivation for understanding the total situation of the country. Dr. Singh immediately responded and kindly gave me the scope of initiating the project from this Survey.. Thus, the project was started from 1976. The first phase of field work for collection of data at block level, primarily from secondary sources, was started from January, 1977 throughout the country where shifting cultivation is traceable. This phase of field work continued upto July 1977. After analysing data and realising the situation of the whole country at state level, the 2nd phase of field work was started in January 1978 for collecting data at village level from selected villages of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.

Introduction The origin of shifting cultivation can be traced back to 9,000 years ago on estimates ef the archaeological data. During this period man became a cultivator from a hunter and food gatherer. Shifting cultivation was practised in different parts of the world including the Danube Valley and Formosa.' This age-old practice is even now in vogue in many tropical countries of Asia and Africa. But in comparison with the long period of its history, there have been negligible changes in the system of this method of cultivation. No plough is used; no modern implements are utilised and all work is done through human labour, with the help of meagre tools and implements like digging sticks, jungle-cutting knives or axes and simple sickles for harvesting.