SPECIAL AREA DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES
I. Hill Areas Development Programme (HADP):
Problems of Hill Areas: 17.1 The crucial environmental problems of the hills are deforestation and soil erosion, both leading to the drying up of water sources, flash floods, decline in the yield of food and cash crops, fodder, fuel and other minor forest produce. Poverty in the hills is directly related to shortages of materials for basic subsistence, specially where, under the traditional land and water management systems, the capacity of land to support the population has already exceeded.
17.2 In may hill areas, intensive human and livestock pressures along with indiscriminate felling of trees fro commercial purposes have already led to loss of soil and rapid depletion and destruction of forest cover. In addition to this, water retention capacity and productivity of land have been adversely affected. These factors have impaired the ecology significantly, resulting in difficult economic condition fr the hill people. Traditional agricultural practices, especially shifting cultivation, have also contributed to the destruc- tion of forests and soil erosion. Seemingly harmless activity as prolonged grazing by livestock, especially goats and sheep, have further exposed many hill areas to serious ecological degradation. Development activities like construction of buildings, roads, dams, large and medium industries and mining etc., have aggravated environ- mental problems.
17.3 Consequently, perennial sources of water and small streams have dried up in many areas. Therefore, the major challenge is to devise suitable location-specific solution, so as to reverse the process and ensure sustainable development of the growing population and ecology of the hill areas.
17.4 The responsibility for balanced social and economic development of the hill areas rests primarily with the concerned State Governments.
17.5 The hill areas covered under the HADP were the areas identified in 1965 by a Committee of the National Development Council (NDC) and those recommended by the High Level Committee for WEstern Ghats in 1972. The HADP would continue to be implemented during the Eighth Plan, only in those areas where it is already under operation. The Hill Areas are broadly classified as follows:
(i) Special Category States: These are Jammu & Kashmir; Himachal Pradesh; Sikkim; Manipur; Meghalaya; Nagaland; Tripura; Arunachal Pradesh; Mizoram; and Assam. These are by and large hilly and self-contained politico-administrative entities and have their own State Plans to take care of their special economic, social and environmental needs. These States receive Central financial assistance on 90% grant and 10% loan basis, as compared to 30% grant and 70% loan to the general category STates. prior to 1991-92, Jammu & Kashmir and Assam received Central financial assistance on 30 per cent grant and 70 per cent loan basis.
(ii) The Designated Hill Areas,(DHA):
Special central financial assistance is given for these areas to supplement the resources of the concerned States. The Designated Hill Areas are of two categories: (a) Districts and (b) Talukas. In the first category are two Districts of Assam, one of Tamil Nadu, eight of Uttar pradesh, and one of West Bengal. Special Central financial assistance and the funds allocated by the concerned State Governments for the hill Districts of the State (excepting the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu where SCA is directed towards special schemes) are pooled for formulating suitable sub-plans of the hill areas with focus on the HADP objectives. In the second category are 163 Talukas in the Western Ghats Region in five States, i.e., Maharashtra; Kerala; Karnataka; Tamil Nadu and Goa. For want of separate flow of STate resources at the Taluka level, SCA is mostly used for schemes relating to conservation of soil and water, afforestation, horticultural development and the like schemes.
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17.6 During the Eighth Plan, efforts will be made to extend the sub- plan approach to as many Talukas of the Western Ghats designated Talukas and the Nilgiris District, as feasible.
17.7 The area and population of the States, the Districts and the Talukas covered under the HADP, are detailed in Table 17.1
Review and Adjustment of HADP 17.8 Although the HADP made a beginning during the Fifth Plan, it evolved to the present state only during the Seventh Plan. Initially, the programme was beneficiary-oriented. In the Sixth Plan ecological development was emphasised but the general tenor did not differ sig- nificantly from the sectoral approach in State Plan. Emphasis on eco- restoration, eco-preservation and eco-development was not adequate. During the Seventh Plan, harmonious social and economic growth, and development of infrastructure, reconstruction of ecology were empha- sised.
17.9 The general approach to the development of the Western Ghats areas during the Seventh Plan was integrated development on compact watershed basis, where activities like water and soil conservation, agriculture, minor irrigation, horticulture, pasture development and afforestation, etc., were taken.
17.10 During the last three Five Year Plans, substantial effort and resources were channelised for the development of infrastructure. However, corresponding growth in the productive sectors of most of the hill economies has not kept pace. During the Eighth Plan, attention will have to be focussed on this, especially, in modernising the agricultural practices and small scale industries at household, cot- tage and village levels. To achieve this, involvement of the people, would be of paramount importance. Actual basic needs of the people have to be met through improved management of their land and water resources.
Objective 17.11 Socio-economic development of the hills has to take place in harmony with ecological development. Programmes promoting basic life support systems with sustainable use of resources of the hills are to be aimed at.
Approach and Strategy 17.12 The following will be the approach and strategy to hill areas development planning:
i) Intensive efforts would be necessary at the implementation level to halt the process of degradation of the hills and improve productivity of land:
ii) Innovative approaches of family planning and welfare to contain the population growth to sustainable levels have to be adopted;
iii) Financial and physical monitoring of the HADP by the State Governments would help improve implementation of various programmes;
iv) Afforestation programme may be popularised through village authorities, schools and other local organisations, groups and clubs. Private nurseries, especially, of multi-purpose trees which yield benefits like fodder leaves, edible fruits or leaves or flowers, seeds, leaves of commercial value can be encouraged;
v) Application of scientific inputs to agriculture and allied sectors, including identification of crops suitable for the agro-climatic zones, multi-purpose species of trees and bushes to meet requirements of the people from a well-developed small land area are of special importance. This approach is expected to spare considerable areas for permanent greening programmes, like social forestry or horticultural and serve the long-term objectives of enhancing production on sustain- able basis;
vi) Appropriate technologies to bring about localised self-sufficiency and generate alternative means of livelihood,
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as opposed to heavy dependence on forests, and livestock rearing, can be encouraged;
vii) Use of appropriate technologies to upgrade the traditional productive systems like agricultural operations, livestock rearing, arts and crafts, household and cottage industries, etc., and to reduce drudgery of women in fetching water, fuel-wood, fodder and other demanding daily domestic chores needs to be encouraged on priority. The technologies have to be need-based, more productive, efficient, low-cost, and ecologically sustainable;
viii) Extension services should enlighten and educate people as how to enhance productivity of both cultivated and community land on sustainable basis in the context of increasing human and livestock pressures;
ix) Consolidation of small and scattered land holding would help in improving water and land management and ultimately, productivity of the limited land assets of the hills;
x) In many hill areas, land assets are held as common or community property. In such areas, people do not make permanent investments and several other problems also originate from this. To overcome these, local communities have to evolve suitable models of land management that would invite permanent investment and ensure both optimal returns and ecological safety and development;
xi) The State Governments may take a fresh look at their Plan and non-Plan Schemes, forest policies, the land tenure systems, land and water use policies and realign them to eradicate practices destructive to ecology and environment;
xii) In order to reduce pressure on land, quality of livestock, including goats, sheep, pigs and poultry birds has to be improved and their numbers reduced. There is an urgent need for relating livestock population to the bearing capacity of available land. Scrub animals could be systematically culled out. The livestock and cattle improvement programmes need to be integrated with fodder and cattle-feed development, stall feeding and scientific grazing. The land and live- stock systems have to improve rapidly;
xiii) The productivity of pastures and grazing areas needs to be restored and enhanced. The effort should be to meet the requirements of food, fuel-wood, timber and fodder through scientific utilisation of scarce hill resources on sustainable basis from the least land area;
xiv) Development of non-conventional energy and use of non-wood based sources of energy could be encouraged;
xv) Development of watersheds that can meet water requirement of the people and conserve water and soil resources of the area can be taken up for integrated development. For this, multi-disciplinary approach is considered most appropriate for creating conditions conducive to development of natural and human resources;
xvi) Food security has to be ensured on top most priority. Development of horticulture, sericulture, sericulture and plantation, especially, cash crops having low volume, light weight, high value and long shelf-life, could play an important role in generating employment opportunities, higher incomes and ecologically sound development in hilly areas;
xvii) Area specific marketing infrastructure, especially for perishable produce and its processing, storage and packaging may be set up where such surpluses are imminent or evident;
xviii) At the household level, kitchen gardens can be popularised to supplement and enrich the diet of hill people;
xix) Wherever transport linkages have been established and local cultivation of foodgrains is not advantageous, strong Public Distribution System could be extended, provided other adequate income generating avenues exist;
xx) To reduce the use of wood for packaging of horticultural produce, suitable non-wood based packaging materials such as plastics cold be increasingly used on a viable basis;
xxi) Incentives that would encourage formation of large viable hill villages might be built into the development
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effort, so that the overhead input costs to reach amenities and services to them, could be reduced;
xxii) Many hill areas seem to be especially suited to industries that require pollution-fee atmosphere, cool climate, and precision skills like electronics, watch- making, optical glasses, sericulture, etc. A number of cottage industries like carpet weaving, handlooms, handicrafts and other village and household based small- scale industries can be encouraged. Due to higher transportation costs in these areas, industries which reduce weight and volume, but add value and increase shelf-life to the locally available raw materials will be advantageous. Large and medium industries may not generally be considered suitable except under favourable circumstances;
xxiii) Rubber plantations have proved successful in certain areas. Wherever degraded tree free land could become available and where rubber plantations could thrive, these could be encouraged.
xxiv) Development of sericulture has good potential in hill areas. A systematic programme of planting feedstock trees fro silkworms on all spare patches of land can be taken up. Development of sericulture can provide employment to educated and skilled workers and generate value-adding activities and bring in foreign exchange. However, the programme will call for right quality of graine, prompt payment in cash for the cocoons and primary processing activities at local levels;
xxv) Tourism can be organised as an industry, with due care taken to avoid exploitative use of scarce local resources, especially, water and fuel-wood;
xxvi) Location specific suitable code of conduct for tourists may be evolved so as to maintain the surroundings clean and disease free, protect local ecology and respect local traditions, culture and herit- age;
xxvii) Special care needs to be taken to ensure that hill roads are constructed as per traffic needs, scientific design and specifications suited to hill areas, so that the loose soil is contained, proper drainage system is developed and chances of land slides minimised. In such hill areas where the populations density is low and the villages are small and scattered over long distances, porter or pony tracks can be built and properly maintained. Road construction should be completed in all respects without delays;
xxviii) Mining can be carried out but with adequate safeguards in favour of ecology during and after the mining operations;
xxix) Resources should not be thinly spread on a large number of projects and schemes. The priority for such continuing and spill-over schemes, projects and programmes which do not benefit people in improving their quality of life or are destructive to ecology, can be brought down or terminated;
xxx) Shifting cultivation, called `jhum' is mainly practised in the North Eastern Region for production of food. The continuation of `jhum' cultivation reflects the inadequate attention paid to the development of agriculture. Improvement in agricultural practice and inputs, development of land for permanent cultivation, increase in `jhum' land productivity and lengthening of `jhum' cycle, will help in blunting the destructive edge of `jhum' cultivation. Modern agricultural inputs and settled cultivation should reach the jhum land for permanent cultivation, will be worthwhile. In comparatively isolated areas, permanent cultivation on scientific lines for localised self-sufficiency in food seems to be a strong viable solution to the problem of `jhum' cultivation and to stop food air-dropping operations which are undertaken in certain hills on regular basis. Simultaneously, development of location specific alternative income generating occupations can continue;
xxxi) Media support for transfer of suitable modern agriculture technology and its extension need to be given. A separate special programme at about 1800 or 1900 hours needs to be telecast and broadcast for the hill people who usually go to sleep early;
xxxii) Some of the voluntary organisations doing commendable work in the hills can be encouraged, especially, those engaged in improving the ecological system besides economic and social conditions of the people;
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xxxiii) People have to be made aware of the far reaching implications of environmental degradation and their active participation has to be sought for reconstruction of ecology. Environmental aspects can be suitably woven into the curriculum of primary and high school classes;
xxxiv) Regeneration and development of the hill environment cannot be achieved without willing and active cooperation of the people. It will be forthcoming, only if, the benefits from improved land, water and forests resources go directly and equitably to the people themselves;