Society, Ecology and Livelihood: A Critical Study on Jhum Cultivation in Tengnoupal District of Manipur

Abstract

Rice is a major consumptions of the people in Manipur and the whole North-East India. However, the production of rice was and is never enough for the people of this region, which requires the hill people to cultivate for their own livelihood. The jhum or the shifting cultivation is an ancestral method, which requires the clearing of dense forest for showing the crops. In the olden days with minimal populations and minimal clearance of the forest, the affects were visible minimal. However, after the century and with the coming of the modern scientific era, the negative aspect of jhum is visible seriously affecting the socio-ecology of the humanity in the greater ways, leading to several natural disasters at present. This is mainly due to the plantation of the unwanted seeds and plants, which directly affects the eco-system and the environment, turning the forest into grassland, soil degradation, carbon erosion, soil erosion, landslide, flood etc. Thus, the modern socio-ecologist sought for the shifting of jhum to an alternative livelihood, not to do away with the lifeline of the hill people, but to create an alternative platform with the modern technology.