The Last Frontier: People and forests in Mizoram

Daman Singh

Jan 1996 · The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

About this ebook

The last frontier: people and forests in Mizoram details the relationship between the people and their environment, and between the environment and development. It is set in Mizoram, one of the seven states of the ecologically complex north-eastern region, a land where society and culture present a fascinating blend of tradition and modernity whose history and polity varies from that of most other parts of India. The book traces the environmental history of Mizoram, beginning in the nineteenth century, through colonial rule and into the post-Independence period. It examines the nature of biophysical resources and the influence of human activities on them. Finally, the management of forests by people and the state is analysed, including a detailed discussion on the system of shifting cultivation.

 

Table of Contents:

List of figures

List of tables

Foreword by Dr T N Khoshoo

Preface

Introduction: The last frontier

 

Part I: An environmental history of Mizoram

Chapter 1: The regime of village republics

Settlement in the Lushai hills

The supremacy of the village chief

Forests: abode of the spirits

Shifting cultivation or jhum

The influence of people on their environment

Parameters of resource use

 

Chapter 2: British occupation of the Lushai Hills

Compulsions for conquest

Economic importance of the Lushai Hills

Instruments of insulation

The system of administration

The new socio-religious order

Ecological implications of political events

 

Chapter 3: Forests and fields: colonial land use policy

State control over forests

The system of commercial extraction of forest produce

Revenue from forests

The traders’ lobby

Game versus vermin

The continuance of shifting cultivation

New farming methods

The drift of public policy

 

Chapter 4: The creation of Mizoram

The route to self rule

A limited taste of freedom

The struggle for Independence

From Union Territory to State

Isolation, alienation, and regionalism

Public participation in governance

Legitimizing shifting cultivation

Forests for the people

Implications for resource use

 

Chapter 5: The roots of environmental change

Religion

Education

Community relations

Growth and distribution of population

Occupational mobility

Urbanization

Land use policies

 

Part II: Management of resources: between people and the State

Chapter 6: Physiography, land cover, and land use

Geomorphology

Land forms

Climate

Soils

Types of vegetation cover

Land use

 

Chapter 7: Forests, their form and features

The extent of forests

Basic characteristics

The quality of forest resources

The wood and bamboo balance

 

Chapter 8: Keepers of the forest

The existence of village forest reserves

Norms governing village forests

Changes in area of village forests

Availability of forest produce

Control by the village council

Imperatives of local management

Forests in the hands of the State

The incidence of encroachment

Regulating commercial use of forests

Afforestation programmes

Imperatives of governmental management

 

Chapter 9: How shifting cultivation works

The element of collectivity

Community management of shifting cultivation

Preferred sites for j humming

Allotment of jhum plots

Clearing the forest

Burning

Sowing

Weeding

Harvesting

The element of uncertainty

Chapter 10: The tenacity of shifting cultivation

The village scenario

The dependence on shifting cultivation

The duration of jhum cycles

Levels of productivity

 

Chapter 11: The environmental impact of shifting cultivation

The post-jhum ecosystem

Effect on biodiversity

Climatic change due to deforestation

Floods in the plains

The role of fire -

Soil erosion and run-off

Sustainability of productivity

Myth, conjecture, and reality

Chapter 12: The new land use policy

·        A review of past strategies

·        The old New Land Use Policy

·        The Jhum Control Project

·        Changes in the New Land Use Policy

·        The alternative to shifting cultivation

Conclusion: People and forests in Mizoram

Appendices

1. Reserved tree species in the Lushai Hills

2. Domestic animals killed by wild animals in the North Lushai Hills as reported by village writers

3. The Lushai Hills District (Jhumming) Regulation, 1954

4. The Mizo District (Forest) Act, 1954

5. Socio-economic data of Mizoram

6. Agricultural statistics

7. Distribution of slope categories for select river catchments

8. Physical characteristics of soils in Mizoram

9. Tree species found in major forest types

10. Nature of slopes used in shifting cultivation

11. Percentage shares of land use categories in Mizoram

12. General characteristics of vegetation cover in Mizoram

13. Vegetation cover by strata

14. Growing stock per hectare by strata

15. Percentage distribution of stems per hectare by diameter class

16. Major species contributing to basal area in each stratum

17. Wood and bamboo consumption

18. The existence of village forest reserves

19. Changes in the extent of village forest reserves

20. Availability of trees and bamboos for domestic use

21. Detection of offences committed in safety and supply reserves

22. Revenue from forests

23. Carrying capacity of land under shifting cultivation: Mampui and Sairep village (1962)

24. Jhum cycles in Mizoram

25. Shifting cultivation in sample villages

26. Pattern of secondary succession after jhumming at Burnihat

27. Soil and water losses due to shifting cultivation

28. Farming systems research by ICAR RCNEHR (Shillong) at Burnihat: 1976-89

29. Rice production in Mizoram

30. Promising crops for cultivation in the north-eastern region

References

Index

List of figures

1. The location of Mizoram and the north-eastern region in India

2. Territories occupied by Mizo tribes before the British rule

3. The location of places mentioned in chapter 2 and chapter 3

4. Mizoram: geology

5. Mizoram: rivers

6. Mizoram: soil nutrient status

7. Mizoram: forest reserves

 

List of tables

Revenue obtained from the hill areas of Eastern Bengal and Assam, 1903-04

Receipts from forests of the Lushai hills district (in rupees, annas, paise)

Number of wild animals killed for which rewards were paid: 1943-44 to 1947-48

Percentage of literacy by sea

Percentage distribution of total main workers * (approximate estimate based on 1991 census)

Area under different categories of slope

The pattern of land use in Mizoram (1987-89)

Average soil loss and affected area (estimated for five catchments)

Extent of vegetation cover in Mizoram (1975-76)

Land use and land cover by thematic mapping (1989)

District-wise extent of forest (1987-89)

The extent of forests by different sources

The extent of vegetation cover by type

Growing stock of trees and bamboo by strata

Species diversity of strata

The legal status of forest

Family labour involved in clearing forest

Gross village income by source in Hmunpui (1964-65)

Output-input ratios of cultivation

Early succession at Burnihat and Sesawng

Coverage of the New Land Use Policy

About the author

Daman Singh graduated in mathematics from St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, and went on to study at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand. She worked with the Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development, New Delhi, from 1986 to 1992. During the next two years she was at Aizawl, Mizoram, where she took up a research project for the Tata Energy Research Institute, New Delhi, on which this book is based.