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DESCRIPTION |
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| What else could be a tribute to the Un 'International Year of Mountains 2002' than a book on the environment and people of a part of the Great Himalaya Mountain. This book pertains to identification of vertical belts and assessment of ecosystem potentiality of Kameng Himalaya and analysis of the human response to it through the detailed studies of three villages - Yangse, Chhug and Senge Dzong located at 600 m, 1800 m, and 3000 m altitude, respectively. It deals with the shifting cultivation, settled cultivation, animal husbandry agropastoralism, transhumance, horticulture, hunting, gathering and fishing practised by the adivasis. The agricultural calendar, nutrition and health, trends of change etc. are also dealt with. Transhumance has been reported for the first time from this part of the Himalaya. Significantly it analyses the problems and prospects of change from shifting to settled cultivation and overall develop- ment of the mountain ecosystem keeping its pragmatic and aesthetic values in mind. Presence of altitudinality is easily discernible through the geoecological controls on man, plants and animals in the study area and it shows that altitude is an impetus rather than impediment in the mountain development. The altitude of 2800 m seems to be the upper limit of the viable agriculture, and that of 1600 m for the wet rice cultivation. The inter-belt transfer of matter and energy, symbiotic exchange of products between the agriculturists and pastoralists, reciprocity, team work, role of socio-economic and political organisations and village council in the control and regulation of natural resources, division of work by age and sex are some of the strategies devised to get maximum results of their efforts made towards human adaptation to the mountain environment. For future development and management of environment the indigenous technology and strategy with 'modern' blend has to continue to maintain ecological balance. To achieve this the practise of 'no-tillage', 'hoe-culture', intensification of agriculture in the flat valley lands and utilisation of more than one belt is the only solution. These topics would definitely generate interest among the geographers, ecologists, anthropologists, social scientists, planners and technocrats in this book. |
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