Sustainability of Land Use in North-East India: Issues Involving Economics, Environment and Biodiversity Issues and Implications

N.E. India consists of seven hill states: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. Of these, Assam is the least hilly since much of it lies in the plains of the Brahmaputra river system. Most of N.E. India, however, consists of hills or mountains deeply dissected by rivers and streams due to uplifting of the land. Because of this terrain, travel in this region of India is difficult and slow. Tribal people make up the overwhelming majority of the population of these states, except for Assam, and shifting agriculture and forest resources play a major role in their economic life. Rising populations and desire for an improved standard of living in this region (where the incidence of poverty is high e.g. it is reported that over 50 per cent of the population of Mizoram is below the poverty line) have resulted in lack of sustainability of traditional practices in agriculture and forest use. Consequently, there is a need to search for alternative methods of agriculture and forest use and to evaluate their sustainability from an economic, social and biophysical point of view.