A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO NORTH EAST INDIA

l Comprising seven states, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh,Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura/North East India is located between latitudes 22° N and 2903 N and longitudes 89° 46' E and 97° 30"E

l It covers an area of 255,083 square kilometres and supports a population of 38.5 million (2001), ie. it accounts 7.7 % of the land surface of India and contains 3.74 % of the total population of the country

l The region borders with China, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bhutan. With its long border extending over 4,800 km, it occupies an extremely strategic position and it is connected with the main land by a narrow corridor of foothill land in North Bengal. The width of the corridor is about 33 km on the eastern side and 21 km on the western side and the link is subjected to occasional disruptions due to heavy rains and floods.

l Such terrestrial location of North East India makes it into an isolated pocket which is one of the important causes for alienation of its population.

l North East India is a land-locked region. It is physiographically not a homogenous unit.  The region has Tertiary mountains, Archaean plateaus, river valleys, intermontane plain and piedmont plain.

l The Tertiary hills and mountains cover a major part accounting 60 % of the region, spreading over Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, North Cachar, Mizoram and Manipur.

l The Plateaus are represented by Meghalaya and Karbi Anglong district of Assam which account 12 % of the whole area.

l The major plains are the Brahmaputra valley, the Barak plain, the Manipur basin and Tripura piedmont plain and these constitute 28 % of the total area of the region.

l The climate of the region may be identified as tropical monsoon with local variations, the hot season being shorter than usual with low average of about 30^OC.

l The terrain condition, soil types, rainfall, humidity and temperature conditions of the region support an altitudinally variations in distributed vegetations which provide habitats and niches for different types of herbivores and their predators, birds, insects, reptiles and fishes.

l The region is endowed with a variety of minerals, like petroleum, coal, limestone, sillimanite and a large reservoir of hydel poer potential.

l The economic structure of the states of North-East India is dominated by agriculture and allied activities. But the land under cultivation in the region is only 16% of its total geographical area. It varies from 2.5 % in Arunachal Pradesh to 7.2 % in Manipur, 9.4 % in Meghalaya, 4 % in Mizoram, 15 % in Nagaland, 36 % in Tripura and 45 % in Assam.

l The shifting cultivation is the common mode of agriculture in the hilly areas.

l Flood, bank erosion and drought conditions in certain areas are the main hurdles to the development of agriculture in the plains.

l The predominance of primary sector, untapped energy resources, inefficient transport and communication systems, lack of entrepreneurship and marketing facilities etc. are the major factors for the slow growth of industrial activities.

 Political history: 

The Naga Hills district of Assam and the Tuensang area of NEFA (Arunachal Pradesh) were separated for the formation of Nagaland in 1957 in the wake of insurgency there and it was elevated to a full state in 1963.

l After the formation of Nagaland it was very difficult to keep the other hill areas of Assam from getting their respective state. Meghalaya was formed with two hill districts, namely Garo Hills and United Khasi and Jainia Hills of Assam on April 2,1970. Under the North Eastern Reorganisation Act of 1971, Meghalaya was granted full statehood along with Manipur and Tipura, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram were made union teritories and these two administrative units also gained full state-hood in 1987.

 PEOPLE  : 

Three important groups of people inhabit in North East India. They are the hill tribes, the plain tribes and the non-tribal population of the plains.

l The share of tribal population is very high in Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya (85-95 %) significantly high in Arunachal Pradesh (64 %) nearly one-third of the population in Tipura and 'Manipur are, tribes and over 12 % of Assam's  population consist of tribes.

l Thus the region has just 12 % of the country's tribal population and they, other than those living in Assam, enjoy political power as their states were created mainly on the principle of tribal dominance.

l Barring the Khasis and the Jaintias, all other hill tribes belong to the Tibeto-Chinese group. The Khasi and Jaintias speak Austric language group and the seven states are not bound by a common language.

 DEVELOPMENT: 

Different geographical, economic and social factors have contibuted substantially to the emergence of a centripetal force among the traditional inhabitants of India 's North-East.

l The whole North-East India became a melting pot for various ethnolinguistic groups like Austro-asiatic, Tibeto-chinese, Aryan etc. and a type of Mongoloid culture has been created in the region.

l But due to imposition of various social, economic and political barriers between different group of people, the centripetal force has now become weakened in the policy of North East India.

l The current trouble in the region is due to geographic isolation, long years of neglect and sudden exposure of relatively backward societies to the complexities of modem system imposed by the government of India.

l After independence huge investment through plan and non-plan funds were channalised in order to improve the quality of life among the inhabitants of the seven states of the region. But they have failed to bring any positive changes.

Any development strategy for the region must be based on mutual understanding of different states. The economy of North East India should be treated as a single economy with free inter-state flow of commodities.