Livelihood and natural resources utilization pattern in ethnically diverse area in Arunachal Pradesh

The majority of the mountains and Himalayan population depend upon agricultural and forest based natural resources for their livelihoods (Singh et al., 1994; Sundriyal et al., 1994) The traditional farming system in the Himalaya is a mixture of crop and animal husbandry, which provides fodder, firewood, food and medicine for human and timber for house construction (Upreti et al., 2001). Increased population pressure and demand for food and cash has led the farmers to change in the landuses as well as agro-ecosystems of the region ultimately leading to rapid depletion of natural resources (Maikhuri et al., 2001).

In the north east India, shifting cultivation (jhum) is a major landuse that is practiced by almost all the tribal groups (Ramakrishnan, 1993). During recent past as a result of increasing, population pressure there is a shift as the jhum fallow cycles have reduces drastically, depleting the soil status under such lands. The farmers are also opting for permanent or sedentary agriculture in view of meeting their requirement (Gangwar and Ramakrishnan 1987). Animal husbandry is an important component of the local economy and the status of a tribal family is often also assessed on the bases of the number of animals it owns. despite of a few reports that are available on agricultuiral dynamics of Arunachal information available on the utilization and management of various natural resources by indigenous communities that are very essential for sustaining local livelihoods based on different landuses with a main focus on agricultural, forest, NTFPs and animal husbandry aspects.