Hill tribes of Northeast India
The hill tribes of Northeast India[a] are hill people,[b] mostly classified as Scheduled Tribes (STs), who live in the Northeast India region. This region has the largest proportion of scheduled tribes in the country.
Northeast India comprises Assam and part or all of the former princely states of Manipur, Tripura and Sikkim.
There are areas of plains in the modern State of Assam, but otherwise the region is mostly hilly or mountainous. The hills have long been populated with Tibeto-Burman (a branch of Sino-Tibetan) hill people, some of whom originate in other parts of the Himalayas or of Southeast Asia.
There are many distinct groups with unique languages, dress, cuisine and culture.
The British made little effort to integrate the hill people into British India, but governed through a system of village chiefs and headmen.
In some areas, educated elites pushed for greater autonomy for the hill people within the state of Assam, and obtained some autonomy at a district level after Indian independence in 1947. In response to attempts by the Assamese majority in the plains to impose their language, the hill people began to struggle for yet more autonomy as separate states within the Indian Union, which they largely achieved.
Today, the hill people have political control in most of the new hill states surrounding Assam, although plains people control parts of the economy. There are continued tensions between the hill people and plains people, and also tensions between different hill peoples in each hill state.
Violent insurgent groups continue to cause many fatalities.
Location[edit]
The North Eastern Region is bounded to the north by Nepal, China and Bhutan, to the east by Myanmar and to the southwest by Bangladesh. It is connected to India to the west by a narrow corridor.
Apart from the fertile central plains of Assam bordering the Brahmaputra River and the Barak River, the region is hilly or mountainous, including parts of the Himalayas, the Garo Hills, Khasi and Jaintia Hills, Mikir Hills and North Cachar Hills to the south of the Brahmaputra, the Mishmi Hills in the far east, and the Patkai Range, Naga Hills, Manipur Hills, Lakher Hills and Lushai Hills along the border with Myanmar to the east and southeast.
At the time of Indian Independence from British Rule in 1947, the Northeastern region consisted of Assam and the princely states of Manipur and Tripura.[2]
Manipur and Tripura became Union Territories of India in 1956, and states in 1972.[2]
Sikkim was integrated as the eighth North Eastern Council state in 2002.[3]
Decline of shifting cultivation[edit]
Shifting cultivation, known as adiabik in Arunachal Pradesh and jhoom in Assam and Tripura, is an ancient method of farming in the tropics and subtropics.[46]
It is a sustainable way to use forest resources in areas with low human populations.[47]
However studies in the Philippines, Africa and India have shown that jhooming can only support about 6 people per 1 square kilometre (0.39 sq mi).[48]
Of the 19 tribal communities in Tripura, all but the Bhutias and Chaimals practice shifting cultivation, and almost 40% are entirely reliant on this form of farming.
As elsewhere, jhooming involves clearing an area of forest land on a hillside, farming it for a year or so, then letting it regenerate for several years.[47]
In 1987 the Jhumia population in Tripura totalled 288,390.[49]
In traditional jhooming, an area with dense bamboo growth or fairly dense secondary growth is chosen and cultivation plots laid out.[50]
Tracts of virgin climax forest are preserved as sacred groves around the area.[51]
The land is cleared apart from a few large trees, which are thinned, and the cut vegetation is spread out to dry, protecting the soil during this period.
It is then burned just before the rains start, and the ash is washed into the soil to provide fertilizer for crops such as cereals, pulses, oil seeds, vegetables and fiber crops.[49]
The crop is guarded and weeded as it grows, then harvested in a communal effort.
The land is then left fallow for 20 to 25 years.[52]
Various measures ensure rapid forest regeneration and recovery of soil fertility.[51]
The traditional jhoomers also gather wild forest products, hunt, fish and make tools and handicrafts.
Their culture stresses conservation of the forest on which they depend.[51]
Between 1901 and 1991 there was explosive growth in the population of Tripura, particularly after 1941, mainly caused by Bengali Hindu migrants fleeing violence.
The newcomers settled in the lands of the traditional farmers that pushed them further into the interior, with little effort to control the situation until 1958.[53]
Migration resumed in 1963 due to riots in Eastern Pakistan, and in 1971 during the Bangladesh liberation war.
The migrants, accustomed to a combination of employment supplemented by settled farming, began to practice jhooming for supplementary income, and by 2000 accounted for over 80% of jhooming in Tripura.
They used a short fallow cycle of 3–5 years, and failed to follow many of the essential conservation practices of traditional jhooming.[54]
At the same time, the State Administration created Reserved Forests and Wildlife Protected Areas, and assigned large tracts of primary evergreen forests to forestry and other uses, greatly reducing the land available for jhooming and forcing much shorter fallow cycles.[55]
Between 1972 and 1985 the jhoomed area in Tripura fell from 1,500 to 759 square kilometres (579 to 293 sq mi).
By 1981 almost all the jhumia households were dependent on employment for income.
The community social structure had broken down, and the younger people had become involved in commercial, sometime illegal, exploitation of forest resources.
This has put huge pressure on the forest ecology.[55]
Some efforts have been made to resettle jhumias on the plains, or to help them adapt to working on coffee, black pepper, rubber, betel, kathal and orange plantations.[56]