RAS question
Shifting cultivation (Jhum/Slash-and-burn) in India is primarily practiced in:
Correct answer: (C) Northeast India (Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya).
Shifting cultivation, locally known as jhum in India, is primarily practised in Northeast India, including Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur and Meghalaya.
Explanation
Northeast India is the right answer because the MoEFCC Green India Mission document identifies shifting cultivation as the predominant land-use and agricultural system across north-eastern states, including Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland. In this practice, forest patches are cleared and burned, cultivated for about 2-3 years, and then abandoned when soil fertility declines. That cycle explains both why it is associated with forested hill regions and why it is linked to deforestation and soil erosion. Jhum is also deeply embedded in local cultural practice, even as the government seeks interventions that respect local customs and reduce degradation. Other regional names such as Podu, Penda and Bewar exist, but the primary Indian geography tested here is the Northeast.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Rajasthan is too arid for shifting cultivation of the jhum type, which depends on clearing and burning forest patches rather than dryland farming.
- (B) Punjab and Haryana are associated with intensive, settled agriculture, not a rotational forest-clearing system such as shifting cultivation.
- (D) Kerala is better associated here with plantation agriculture, whereas shifting cultivation is placed as a predominant agricultural system in north-eastern states.
Concept
This tests the regional distribution of agricultural systems in Indian geography. RAS repeatedly asks such questions because farming practices link physical geography, tribal livelihoods, forest use and environmental degradation.