Welcome to
the Department of Soil & Water Conservation, Nagaland. The Department was created with
a view to tackle various Soil & Water conservation problems and specially to draw up
scheme for weaning away the people from jhum cultivation which is widely practiced in
Nagaland and replace by permanent form of cultivation. 94% of the total area of Nagaland is hilly terrain with
heavy annual rainfall ranging from 120cm to 240cm. The economy of the people is fully
dependent on Agriculture but due to misuse of land, the fertility of soil and its
resultant Agriculture produce are alarmingly reduced. Some of the major factors of land
degradation in the State is the practice of shifting cultivation and logging. In order to
tackle such problems, the department of Soil & Water Conservation imparts Soil &
Water Conservation oriented land use technology in order to enhance their production and
maintain ecological balance.
The Department of Soil & Water
Conservation came into being in the last year of the 3rd Plan, no field work
was attempted due to non provision of fund. In the 1st Year of the 4th
Plan, all our efforts were directed towards recruitment of staff and purchase of necessary
equipments etc. and no concrete field work could be taken up except general survey of
certain projects, due to paucity of men and materials. However with the help of the
existing Technical Officers and available materials, various field works have since been
initiated in the selected Watershed Projects / Centres throughout the State. The first
Director was
Joshua Kire.
As proposed in the 4th Plan,
3 (three) Watershed Pilot Projects have been demarcated i. e., at Zubza in Kohima
District, at Tuli in Mokokchung District and at Chare in Tuensang District by the end of
1972-73, where field works on various aspects of Soil Conservation viz., terracing,
Contour bunding, Afforestation, Orchard Plantation and construction of irrigation channels
are in full swing in all the above Projects. |
