Degradation of a Natural Forest by Jhum Fire (for Shifting Cultivation) in Northeast India – a Serious Threat to Existing Biodiversity

Photographer’s remarks

The most important negative environmental impacts of shifting cultivation are the damage of the soil system. Besides causing air pollution due to burning, it is responsible for loss of soil nutrients, useful soil fauna and microbes. Burning and clearing of forest areas at regular and frequent intervals causes the loss of primary forests, hence results in substantial loss of vegetation and associated biodiversity. Repeated use of land with short jhum cycle finally converts the jhum fallows in degraded wastelands. Therefore, it is considered to be the single most important factor causing deforestation and forest degradation in northeast India.