Forest Resource and Agriculture option for Livelihoods among Schedule tribe in RARH Region of West Bengal in India

Abstract

Agriculture activity and forest resource collection are the major livelihood source among rural tribal people. Agriculture and Forestry can reduce hunger and poverty and improve the sustainability of rural livelihood in the face of economic and environmental shocks and stresses. The major objectives of this study are as follows: 1. to investigate the influences of agriculture activity and forest resource on tribal livelihoods. 2. To find out the major challenges facing by tribal people for agriculture development and forest resource collection. The database of the study is based on secondary and primary sources. Primary data is collected through a well-structured questionnaire. The result shows that most of the tribal people do not have a sufficient amount of agriculture land for sustaining their livelihood. That’s why they depend upon forest resource collection and seasonal migration. With the passage of time growing demands of wood and Non-Timber Forest Products leads to illegal cutting of trees and many times forest land unprotected by forest officials. So agriculture development and forestry regeneration are the utmost need for sustainable livelihood.