RAS question
Jhum cultivation (shifting cultivation) is practiced in:
Correct answer: (D) Northeastern states of India.
Jhum cultivation, a form of shifting slash-and-burn agriculture, is practised mainly in the north-eastern states of India.
Explanation
Jhum cultivation is the north-eastern Indian form of shifting cultivation, so option D is the correct location. It is slash-and-burn agriculture practised mainly in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh. NCERT supports the same idea by naming jhumming in north-eastern states such as Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland, and by explaining the method: farmers clear a patch of land, grow cereals and other food crops, and shift to a fresh patch when soil fertility decreases. The key exam clue is therefore not simply "traditional farming", but the combination of slash-and-burn, shifting plots and the north-eastern region.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Punjab and Haryana are not identified with jhum by NCERT; the option instead points to modern farming, not shifting slash-and-burn cultivation.
- (B) Rajasthan is not the main jhum region, and its arid setting does not match the north-eastern shifting-cultivation context asked here.
- (C) Kerala is associated in the option with plantation agriculture, whereas the question asks for jhum cultivation, which NCERT places mainly in the north-eastern states.
Concept
This tests the Indian agriculture topic of primitive subsistence and shifting cultivation. It recurs in RAS because region-specific names and practices, such as jhum in the North-East, are standard Geography of India markers.