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Category-wise Wastelands of Nagaland as per Wastelands Atlas of India, 2000 |
| Sl.No. |
Category of Wastelands |
Area in Ha. |
% of Total Geographical Area. |
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| 1 |
Land
with or without scrub |
159646 |
9.63 |
| 2 |
Shifting
cultivation area |
522465 |
31.51 |
| 3 |
Degraded Forests
land |
158299 |
9.55 |
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Total |
840410 |
50.69 |
| Source:
Wastelands Maps prepared from Landsat Thematic Mapper/IRS LISS II/III Data, National
Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) |
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| As evidenced from the table above, shifting cultivation,
locally known as ‘jhumming’ forms the major cause of wastelands in Nagaland,
therefore, there is a need to have serious introspection into the system. The practice of
shifting cultivation which is a way of life for rural Nagas and a system of food
production worked well when there was a balance between population and soil fertility as a
result of longer fallow cycle. With rapid increase in population, the cycle has now
reduced to 5-8 years and previously uncultivated, and ever steeper land is being taken
into the jhum system. This results in
accelerating both on site and off site degradation due to erosion, runoff, nutrient
losses, siltation, loss of bio-diversity and disruption in watershed hydrology.
Productivity per unit area has decreased drastically, crop yields have successively
declined over time and meets food demand for only 5-6 months thus creating a serious
socio-economic problem. In spite of several attempts made in the past by the State
Government to wean people away from the practice, majority of the people continue to
practice jhum and the total area put under this system continue to increase, thus people
continue to live in abject poverty and the problem of natural resource degradation
continue to increase rapidly |
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