THE LAND-HA

The state of Tripura is a beautiful with scenic beauty covered with lush greens, full of small and medium size fields, similarly have all types of hills, small, medium, and moderately high hills, these hills are basically part of outermost part of eastern Himalyan ranges. Covered by picturesque hills and dales, deep and green valleys, Tripura has an area of 10,477 square kilometers and a population of about 27,45,000. The hills of the state which have added beauty to its landscape run from north to south parallel to one another till they disappear in the plains of Sylhet in Bangladesh. From the east the principal hill ranges are the Jampui, Sãkhãn Tlang, Langtarai, Athara Mura and Bara Murã. The highest peak of the state is known as Betling Shiv (3,200 ft.) in the Jampui hill range. The state is having three districts with ten sub-divisions. The three districts are: Tripurã West with Agartala as its head quarter (which is also the state capital), Tripurã North and Tripura South with Kailasahar and Udaipur respectively as district head-quarters.

The state lies approximately between latitude 22 56° and 24° 32 North and longitude 91° 10 and 92° 21 East. Bordered by Bangladesh on the West, South and North, by Assam on the North-East and by Mizoram on the East, the state is connected with the rest of India by only one road which runs through the hills to the border of Cachar district in Assam. Only Dharmanagar, a sub-divisional town in the north-east, is connected by railways.

The climate of the state is generally hot and humid. The average maximum temperature is 35° C in May-June and the average minimum 10.5° C in December-January. The average rainfall is in the neighbourhood of 230 cm per annum. The monsoon starts generally in April and continues upto September.

The principal seasons of the state are similar to those of the neighbouring states. Summer starts in March and continues upto May, and is followed by the rainy season extending over about three-four months (May-August). The pleasant season has a comparatively small lease of life lasting only for about two months (September and October). Then follows winter which continues upto February.

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There are valleys covering about 40 per cent of the state's area; the soil there is rich alluvial, deposits fertile with, and, therefore, suitable for the cultivation of paddy, jute, oilseeds, pulses, fruits and vegetables. About 270,000 hectares of land (net) area are put to cultivation of which in about 175,000 hectares cultivation takes place more than once, thus bringing the gross area of cultivation to 445,000 hectares. But due to heavy pressure of population on land the average agricultural holding is quite small.

The state's reserved forest covers an area of 3588 sq. km. or about 34 per cent of the total area (1990-91). InclusIve of some area proposed to be reserved (259 sq.km.) and unclassified ftrest area (2445 sq.km.) the total forest area of the State should be 6292 sq. km. or about 60 per cent of the total area. The total quantity of timber, firewood and bamboo produced in the forest in 1990-91 is reported to be of about 184,400 cubic meters of which the proportion of timber is only 27.1 per cent, and those of firewood and bamboo are respectively 53.7 and 19.2 per cent. Some juiabty timber, viz., Sal, Garjan, Teak, Plant Area in hectare as in 1990-91 17,040 Udaipur, Belonia and Sonamura sub-divisions 1,04,386 North Tripura districts  2,857 North and South Tripura districts 12,962 throughout the state.

The Rivers

The Khowai, the Manu, the Saidra (Haorah), the Muhuri and the Gomati are some important rivers of Tripura. The last one, Gomati or Gumti, is the largest river which "receives a number of south-flowing streams and cuts across the ranges in a steep-sided valley from east to west before emerging out of the hills near Radhakishorepur. There are a number of waterfalls in its channel through the Dumbura hill, and the landscape in the neighbourhood is exceedingly picturesque.' The Gomati is considered to be the most sacred of all the rivers in Tripura. As in north India, the Ganges is loved and respected by all and considered to be the symbol of hopes and fears. In Tripura the river Gomati is believed to gush down the earth from its heavenly abode. The source of the river is taken to be Tirthamukh, where in lies the beautiful Dumbur falls believed to be... one of the most important holy places. On Pous Sankranti (or Makar Sankranti) day, thousands gather at the river mouth and take a holy dip in the river. The religious sentiment has found expression in the name of the river Gomati and its source Dumbur. The latter seems to be a corrupt form of Dambaru, one of the emblems of Lord Siva. According to some, the names of the two rivers, Gomati and Manu, suggest early colonisation of Tripura by the Aryans. For Gomati is said to be a tributary of the river Saraju over whose bank the capital of Ayodhya stood. Again, Manu whose commandments regulated the social life of the Hindus for centuries was an Aryan, and it seems significant that one of the important rivers of Tripura bears this name. It is also interesting that the same river flows near Kailasahar (may be corrupt form of Kailasa-Har). The famous pilgrim spot in Tripura, Unakoti, is only about ten kilometres away form Kailasahar Further, a few names in hills of Tripura like Hryshyamukh Tirthamukh etc., also suggest a link with Sanskrit language.

None of the rivers of the state is said to have undergone any sudden or abrupt change. In different places river banks appear differently. In the hills they are of steep and rugged rocks covered with fern and other plants; in the plains they are abrupt but not very high. The river-beds are usually sandy in the hills and clayey in the plains. There are no artificial canal systems in the state. In the low-lying areas there are numerous swamps and marshes. Inland water-traffic is Conspicuous by its absence.

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Development of Forestry

 Forest resources remained untapped till trade and commerce developed with the neighbouring districts of Sylhet, Noakhali and Comilla. Some rules were framed initially in 1887 for preservation of forest areas, but no area was demarcated as the reserved forest. The Forest Department was set up in 1913 and a comprehensive set of rules was also drawn up in that year for its organisation. For administration, the State was divided into a number of forest subdivisions. The office of the Conservator of Forests was created in 1939. However, no forest development work officially began before 1951. During the first three Five-Year I plans, about 10,000 hectares were brought under aforestation, apart from demarcating 1,765 sq. km. as reserve

Various schemes have been formulated for forest works in order to produce industrial raw output and to maintain the desired percentage of forest coverage of about 40 per cent of the total geographical area of state. Apart from conservation and protection of forest life and animals the present government in the state has taken up schemes to raise rubber plantation on a large scale, to extend the area of plantation crops like coffee, cocoa, etc., to enhance infra-structural development and to attract institutional finance through the forest corporation for augmenting the financial resources. Besides, schemes are also in progress to solve the unemployment problem in rural areas through aforestation and other forest development works and to improve the living standard of the people in the forest areas particularly of those Tripuri living in remote hill areas. The people are also being encouraged to undertake cultivation of cash crops like rubber, citronellas, pepper, etc. Forest Advisory Committees are being set up at the Panchayat level for proper distribution of rubber seedlings and other planting material as well as for implementing some state and Central Government sponsored schemes for forest development. A close liaison is being established between the Forest Development and Plantation Corporation and the Panchayats. The present government has also taken steps to treat those protected forests which are having or potentiality of having good bamboo and tree forests as reserved forests. Only those forests which do not show enough prospect for the growth of good bamboo and other specimen of worthwhile trees could be spared, and land could be released for the distribution among landless people.

Till December 1965, commercially important species were raised from a total area of 14,152 hectares of which 5,099 hectares were raised under taungya—an agroforest practice to create forest plantation in conjunction with the raising of agricultural crops by Jhooming. Under this system, Tripuris harvest various agricultural products like paddy, cotton, til, mesta, vegetables, etc., free of cost from such plantation areas. In addition, they get some monetary help for raising such crops.

One year of Left Front Government in Tripura considerable breakthrough seems to have been achieved with the successful introduction of rubber plantation in Tripura since mid-sixties. While in 1965 rubber plantation was confined to an area of 49 hectares only, in December 1975, the area was extended to about 575 hectares and in 1995-96 the Forest Development and Plantation Corporation has brought 6,641 hectares of land under rubber cultivation. The production of rubber has gone up from 28.18 metric tons in 1977-78 to 1,850 tons in 1995-96 enabling the Corporation to earn Rs.6.51 crores. The Corporation has set up 43 rubber processing centres in the state, and hopes to achieve a target of producing 10,000 tons of rubber bringing 55,000 hectares of land under its cultivation by the year 2000. Apart from increasing production, the scheme also aims at the rehabilitation of the shifting Cultivators. The Tripura Rehabilitation Plantation Corporation claims to have rehabilitated already 1966 families by 1995-96. The state government and the Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council have taken a joint initiative rehabilitate about 15,000 tribal shifting cultivators in rubber plantation scheme. Now the state stands first in terms of area under rubber plantation in India, second in terms of rubber production.

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