The shifting cultivation in Nagaland state is described as an agricultural system where a farming community slashes secondary forests on a predetermined location, burns the slash and cultivates the land for a limited number of years. The land is then left fallow and the farming community moves to the next location to repeat the process till they return back to the starting point.

Forests and women are strongly interconnected with each other because women, particularly those living in rural areas or mountain areas, have a deep relationship with the forest ecology because they are responsible for gathering food, fuel, fodder, leaves and water for the family.

Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is one of the most important crops grown in the hilly regions of Meghalaya state in Northeast India. Land preparation for potato cultivation is carried out in an indigenous or traditional way, locally called Nur Bun method. "Nur" is the agricultural land unit in the local Khasi language and refers to one raised bed, which is usually 1-1.25 m wide and 2-7 m long.

Could reviving the ancient technique of charcoal making really solve the global food crisis, halt deforestation and lock up carbon dioxide for good? Chris Goodall sifts fact from myth on biochar.

Mrs. Hume's Pheasant (Syrmaticus humiae) is a poorly known, but globally threatened bird. It is thinly distributed in the hill tracts of northeastern India, northern and western Myanmar, southwestern China and northern Thailand.

AIZAWL, March 22: Environmentalists in Mizoram have expressed concern that forest fires trigerred by jhum burning are threatening the lives of hundreds of wild creatures.

Meghalaya is a landlocked state where the progress of industrialization is very slow. Majority of the population (rural) depends on agriculture. Agriculture in the state is carried on in primitive ways with Jhumming prevailing in many parts. This practice is considered destructive as vast forest areas are cleared and burnt. Such areas are used for cultivation and left out.

The Araku Valley, comprising Anantagiri and Sunkarimetta Reserved Forest, is one of the rich biodiversity areas in the Eastern Ghats of India. The proposed bauxite mining activity by Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation Limited in these areas would not only wipe out the virgin forests, but also destroy the pristine habitats of several endangered flora and wildlife. (Correspondence)

For the last five years the people of Mangabal, a small community beside the Tapaj

Sikkim is not self-sufficient in food production due to limited land availability for cultivation and lower level of productivity affected by constraining mountain specificities such as inaccessibility, fragility and marginality. The people are rich in indigenous knowledge on bio-resources and supplemented their food from the wild plants and animals in the beginning.

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