Shifting Cultivation in India

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The project entitled 'Shifting Cultivation in India' was initiated by the Anthropological Survey of India in 1978 to identify the zones under this primitive system of Land usage 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 16 tribal villages la 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 destroys 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 soil 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.
For understanding the grass root problems of shifting cultivation tribal villages inhabited by the Paroja, Koya, Bondo, Didayi, Kondh, Saora and Juang in Orissa, Jatapu, Konda Dhora, the Samantha, Konda Reddi and Savara of Andhra Pradesh, and Semsa of Assam were intensively surveyed. This primitive method of land use which these tribes have been practising since times immemorial have of late, due to various developmental measures, started undergoing a change. This is reflected in tribals adopting methods such as new cropping practices and increase in the time span for holding the land for regeneration of forest, reclaiming more land for permanent cultivation and settlement and so on. The Government of Mizoram has recently announced an ambitious programme to stop jhuming practices and adopt in its place modern and time-tested techniques of agricultural and horticultural development on a permanent basis.

In 1970 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 1076. 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. 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.
The present report thus deals with state level Survey of the whole country and village level Survey of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. This report was due and could be submitted earlier. But since 1978 we had to take the responsibility of initiating another project on a broader perspective on behalf of the FAO and UNFPA, on priority basis. After submitting the report to the Government for the FAO and UNFPA we again concentrated on our original work and now we place before you the desired report.
Research Personnel: A team of 11 research workers, Dr. P. N. Lal, Human Ecologist, Dr. (Mrs.) Arati Basu (Nandi), Ex-Human Ecologist, Dr. Arun Kumar Singh, Human Ecologist, Dr. H. K. Mondal, Human Ecologist, Dr. Archana Dutta, Research Associate, Mrs. Sanchita Ghatak, Cartographer, Mr. R. K. Bera, Cartographer, Mr. Ranjan Roychow dhury, Cartographer, Dr. P. K. Basu, Cartographer, Dr. S. Ganguli, Cartographer and Dr. M. D. Nandeshwar, Cartographer were associated with this project. Although each member has contributed generously to the work of others yet individual members were entrusted with primary responsibilities for getting the work done.

The origin of shifting cultivation can be traced back to 9,000 years ago on estimates of 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.
In India, this land use practice can be found in fifteen States, concentrated mostly in the north-eastern, eastern, central and southern parts of the country. Locations of these areas are mentioned in later sections of this book.
Since 1942, the idea that this system of land use destroys soil fertility, reduces forest area and helps deforestation has been gaining ground. N. L. Bor, Forest Botanist in the Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun, India, in his Presidential Address to the Botany Section of the Indian Science Congress-1942, attributed the soil erosion in Assam to the practice of shifting cultivation. Since then several experts have felt very strongly about the demerits of shifting cultivation. In his report for the year 1960-70, the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes remarked that, "in many parts of the Koraput district in Orissa mile after mile of once fertile land have now become covered with rustic, reddish gravel". It is true that in certain areas like south Orissa or north-east Andhra Pradesh, a badland has been developing due to this kind of deforestation, and that if this process of land degradation continues it may become difficult to grow even plants in the near future.