EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Jhum in the Jungle

Jhum (Shifting Cultivation) Landscape
Garo Hills, Meghalaya, India

Explanation:  This week we are in a remote corner of northeast India, in the Garo Hills of the far western part of the state of Meghalaya.  To the north, over many hills and valleys, bends the mighty Brahmaputra River, and beyond that the Indian state of Assam and the country of Bhutan.   

But here is the domain of the Garo Hills Tribe.  We are seeing their imprint on the land from their ages-old practice of shifting cultivation agriculture, in the Garo language known as jhum.  

Jhum cultivation is a highly refined method of using the land to produce food and other forest goods.  By clearing relatively small areas at a time, it gives the older jhum plots time to regrow and renew the soil nutrients and productivity.  Thus, jhum plots shift across the landscape over time, giving rise to the commonly-referred to practice of shifting cultivation.  

Further, when jhum plots are first cleared, scattered older trees are sometimes retained as future seed sources and important roost and nest sites of wildlife such as hornbills.  The lower photo, above, shows an older, fallow jhum plot with residual "legacy" trees.  

This view shows jhum plots in various stages of regrowth
that also serves to provide a diversity of habitats
for many wildlife species of the region.

The Garo Hills, as with Meghalaya, are an ancient arm of the Himalayan Mountains, eroded over time to appear more as steep foothills than the ice-topped peaks we usually think of as Mount Everest, K-2, and other parts of the Himalayan range.  Being isolated by lowlands, the Garo Hills have served as a refugium and center of evolutionary diversity for insects, plants, and animals worthy of protection for its people, their traditional ways, and for nature itself.