BharatNotes What is Jhum Cultivation?
Jhum cultivation is the local name for shifting cultivation, a form of slash-and-burn subsistence agriculture practised primarily in the hilly terrain of Northeast India. A patch of forest is cleared by cutting the vegetation, which is then dried and burnt before the first rains; the ash enriches the soil, allowing mixed cropping of rice, millets, maize and vegetables for two to three years. Once fertility declines, the plot is abandoned (left fallow) to regenerate, and the cultivator moves to a fresh patch. It remains an economic and cultural mainstay for many tribal households across Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
Local Names Across India
Although called jhum in the Northeast, the same shifting-cultivation system is known by different names in other regions, a detail UPSC frequently tests.
| Local Name | Region / State |
|---|---|
| Jhum | Northeast India |
| Podu / Penda | Andhra Pradesh, Odisha |
| Bewar, Dahiya, Mashan | Madhya Pradesh |
| Kumari | Western Ghats |
| Pamlou | Manipur |
| Dipa | Bastar (Chhattisgarh), Andaman & Nicobar |
Key Features and Significance
- It is a subsistence, labour-intensive system with low capital input, suited to steep slopes and high-rainfall terrain where settled agriculture is difficult.
- It depends on natural soil-fertility renewal during the fallow phase rather than chemical fertilisers.
- It is intertwined with the customary land tenure, festivals and rituals of indigenous communities, giving it strong socio-cultural value.
Current Status and Concerns
The practice has been declining and intensifying simultaneously. The traditional jhum cycle, once 10-15 years (and longer historically), has contracted to roughly 2-5 years because of rising population and land pressure, leaving insufficient time for forests and soil to recover. This shortening accelerates soil erosion, nutrient loss, weed invasion and biodiversity decline; large quantities of topsoil are lost annually from the North-eastern hill region, contributing to landslides and downstream flooding. Data on the exact area under jhum vary by agency, reflecting measurement difficulty rather than a single agreed figure.
To address this, NITI Aayog's report "Mission on Shifting Cultivation: Towards a Transformational Approach" recommended that land under shifting cultivation be recognised as agricultural land under agro-forestry rather than as forestland, so that farmers can receive agricultural support and transition to sustainable, settled or agro-forestry-based systems.
UPSC Angle
Jhum cultivation is a high-yield revision topic. For Prelims, focus on the local names mapped to their states and the defining slash-and-burn process. For Mains (GS1/GS3), it connects to subsistence farming systems, land-use change in the Northeast, soil and forest degradation, tribal livelihoods, and policy debates on converting jhum land to agro-forestry. It is best understood as a foundational concept that underpins questions on Indian agriculture, environment and the geography of the Northeast.
