General Knowledge - Indian Geography - Discussion

Jhum (Shifting) cultivation is a primitive practice of cultivation in States of North Eastern Hill Region of India and people involved in such cultivation are called Jhumia. The practice involves clearing vegetative/forest cover on land/slopes of hills, drying and burning it before onset of monsoon and cropping on it thereafter.

After harvest, this land is left fallow and vegetative regeneration is allowed on it till the plot becomes reusable for same purpose in a cycle. Meanwhile, the process is repeated in a new plot designated for Jhum cultivation during next year. Initially, when Jhum cycle was long and ranged from 20 to 30 years, the process worked well.

However, with increase in human population and increasing pressure on land, Jhum cycle reduced progressively (5-6 years) causing problem of land degradation and threat to ecology of the region at large.

Assam is the plainest state, in the entire North-Eastern state, so there is no Jhum cultivation in Assam, the answer is totally wrong, it could be the right answer if the state of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland were mentioned.

It is not practising in Assam then why that option is correct? explain, please.

Jhum cultivation - An article in Times of India.

ANAGAR: ArunachalPradesh has made a significant progress in gradually doing away with the age-old practice of Jhum cultivation or shifting cultivation, which degrades the environment.

Jhum cultivation, also known as the slash and burn agriculture, is the process of growing crops by first clearing the land of trees and vegetation and burning them thereafter. The burnt soil contains potash which increases the nutrient content of the soil.

In line with the Centre's stress on conventional methods of cultivation, the state with a 72 percent forest cover had been able to reduce the total area under Jhum cultivation from 1, 10, 000 hectares to 84, 000 hectares in the last 10 years, the state's agriculture department said.

Agriculture department adviser A K Purkayastha said, "About 8.4 lakh metric tonnes of biomass gets lost due to burning of trees resulting in a huge emission of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides and other gases. The emission has been reduced by taking up rice and maize cultivation in terraces".

Purkyastha said that the harmful effects of Jhum cultivation included rapid soil erosion due to deforestation of hill tops and slopes and high runoff velocity and siltation of reservoirs, rivulets and valleys.

"The harmful effects also resulted in the rapid decrease of Jhum productivity due to removal of top soil by runoff water and very little time to recuperate soil fertility due to reduced Jhum cycle", he pointed out.

Sixteen districts encompassing the eight North-eastern states, including West Kameng and East Siang districts in Arunachal Pradesh, are among the recently-identified 100 most climate-sensitive districts of the country.

Jhum cultivation mostly popular in hilly areas.

Jhum cultivation is totally abolished by law as it includes sifting cultivation (i.e. Slash & burn cultivation) which leads to deforestation. It is practiced in hilly areas of north-east India.

Nature gets disbalanced with the burning process with an proneness to soil erosion and landslide. It is also an act of loosing natural gifts and deforestation. In a needy country like India it is not a welcome condition to roll it any longer.

I Think B should be the correct option. Although it is practice in Assam,But not in large extent. It is practice in some patches of Karbi Anglong and NCHills(Dima Hasao) District. However it is practice in other states of North East in large extent.

@Samir Kumar Nath. The jhum cultivators are much more concerned about nature also. In fact they are real protector of the forest resource. After practicing jhum for 2/3 years, they planted the area again. They privatize the plantation area so that they can protect it. However there is no other way also for cultivation in the hilly areas like Arunachal, Nagaland Manipue etc.

Jhum also name as Slash-and-burn is an agricultural technique that involves the cutting and burning of plants in forests or woodlands to create fields. It is subsistence agriculture that typically uses little technology. It is typically key in shifting cultivation agriculture, and in translucence livestock herding.

Most of the cultivators of north east India, specially hilly areas cultivated the Jhum cultivation.