The Reang tribe in Tripura, which practised shifting cultivation and still does to an extent, faces serious problems with the state government implementing measures to turn them into settled cultivators. This essay points out that government programmes have widened social disparities among the Reangs and brought in alternatives that cannot sustain them round the year. It argues that shifting cultivation, which aims at self-sufficiency, is still remunerative compared to other forms of cultivation if traditional forest and land rights are restored to the tribal people.