The Geographers

Some common reasons of deforestation are:                                                                                          To make more land available for housing and  urbanisation To harvest timber to create commercial items such as paper, furniture and homes  To create ingredients that are highly priced  consumer items, such as the oil from palm trees To create room for cattle ranching  Common methods of deforestation are burning trees and clear cutting. These tactics leave the land completely barren and are controversial practices.  Clear cutting is when large swaths of land are cut down all at once. A forestry expert quoted by the  Natural Resources Defense Council describes clear cutting as "an ecological trauma that has no precedent in nature except for a major volcanic eruption." Burning can be done quickly, in vast swaths of land, or more slowly with the slash-and-burn technique.  Slash and burn agriculture  entails cutting down a patch of t

Mining is one of the oldest activities of man. In man’s early progress mining and the use of minerals were so important that they are reflected in such terms as ‘early stone age’, ’later stone age’, ‘copper age’, ‘bronze age’, and ‘iron age’. The ancient uses of minerals were largely confined to the making of tools, weapons, utensils, the construction of buildings and aqueducts, and road building. Although the early uses of minerals were relatively widespread, the real development of mining began with the Industrial Revolution, and has continued to be of ever-increasing importance. The development of mining was basic to the Industrial Revolution. Coal and direct water power early replaced the diminishing forests as sources of fuel. Stone and clays provided the materials for factories and other buildings; iron and other materials, for the industrial machinery and transportation industry. Annual mineral output in the world during the 18 th century was very low and only moderat

Throughout the study of geography, there have been a number of different approaches to explaining the development of the world’s societies and cultures.  One of such is environmental determinism. Environmental determinism is the belief that the environment determines the pattern of human culture and societal development. It is also known as climatic determinism or geographical determinism, is the view that the physical environment, rather than social conditions, determines culture. Those who believe this view say that humans are strictly defined by stimulus-response  (environment -behavior ) and cannot deviate. The fundamental argument of the environmental determinist was that aspects of physical geography, particularly climate, influenced the psychological mind-set of individuals, which in turn defined the behavior and culture of the society that those individuals formed. For example, tropical climates were said to cause laziness, relaxed attitudes and promiscuity, while the fre

ETHNIC GROUPS Among the various tribal groups of the Mizos, the Luseis, somehow, became to be known as the dominating tribes, and from the culture and tradition of the Luseis, many of the present Mizo customs, cultures and traditions flourished. The Luseis, Raltes, Hmars, Pawis, Paites, from a larger tribal groups, while others like Khawlhring, Khiangte, Chawngthu etc. form a smaller tribal groups, although all have numerous sub tribes and sub clans. Apart from the Mizos, there are certain distinct tribal groups like Chakmas and Riangs localized in the south-wetern and western part of the state.             The Chakma tribe belongs to eastern group of the Tibeto-Burman group of people. They are Buddhists, speaking a Chakma dialect which is a corrupt form of the Bengali language written in corrupt Burmese script. Over the years, due to their cultural interaction with people of other races, they have lost much of their originality. Even then, they are very near to south eastern Ben

Sometimes abbreviated ZPG (also called the replacement level of fertility), is a condition of demographic balance where the number of people in a specified population neither grows nor declines, considered as a social aim by some. According to some, zero population growth is the ideal towards which countries and the whole world should aspire in the interests of accomplishing long-term environmental sustainability. A loosely defined goal of ZPG is to match the replacement fertility rate, which is the average number of children per woman which would hold the population constant. This replacement fertility will depend on mortality rates and the sex ratio at birth, and varies from around 2.1 in developed countries to over 3.0 in some developing countries. The American sociologist and demographer K. Davis is credited with coining the term but it was used earlier by George Stolnitz, who stated that the concept of a stationary population dated back to 1693. A mathematical description was

Population composition is the description of population defined by characteristics such as age, race , sex or marital status . Important characteristics of a population, besides its size and growth rate, are the way in which its members are distributed according to age, sex, and urban/rural status. These descriptions can be necessary for understanding the social dynamics from historical and comparative research. This data is often compared using a population pyramid . Population composition is also a very important part of historical research. Information ranging back hundreds of years is not always worthwhile, because the numbers of people for which data are available may not provide the information that is important (such as population size ). Lack of information on the original data-collection procedures may prevent accurate evaluation of data quality. 1. Age Structure: The age structure of a population refers to the number of people in different age groups. A larger

Shifting cultivation is a primitive form of agricultural practice that barely met the minimum requirements of foodgrains. It is largely confined to the hill slopes, often extending to steep gradients in all the hill districts of the region. This practice normally involves the clearing of forests and is allowed to dry up and the residue is burnt up. The fields or the clearings are prepared and wait the onset of the rains. After which, with the broadcasting methods seeds are sown and crops are cultivated. These jhum fields are frequently located near the permanent settlement sites or located within accessible distance. These fields are temporary as they are used only for one or two seasons; after this, the same process is repeated in adjacent forest areas. In other words, there is a distinct rotation of fields that averages 3 to 10 years, this is the jhum cycle. With increasing population pressure, this jhum cycle has gradually declined. As a result this practice has become an un

Physiography  N.E. India is dominated by three major surface features: a. The young fold mountain Systems, b. The alluvial Plains, c. The Meghalaya-Karbi Anglong Plateau. 1. The Young Fold Mountain: The mountain and hilly terrain in the region covers an area of about 150,000 sq.km or nearly 60% of the total area of the region. It is a predominant feature of the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, greater part of Manipur, Mizoram and north eastern part of Tripura. It is along the Arunachal Pradesh and northern Nagaland that the Himalayan range takes its syntaxial bend. This changes its trend to south and south-east. This zone can be divided into two distinct units such as: a. The Arunachal Himalaya extending from the eastern frontiers of Bhutan to Siang-Dihang rivers in the east and b. The eastern hills comprising of the Dibang-Lohit-Patkai-Naga-Manipur-Mizoram-Tripura hills. The Arunachal Himalaya, in turn can be divided into i). the lesser zone and ii). The gr

The North Eastern region lends itself favourably to the exposition of climate on a synoptic basis. Variability in climate both seasonally and as between the sub-regions is best understood if references are made to the distribution of surface features, periodic oscillation of pressure cells and local conditions, which displace each other in the area. Moreover, the popular understanding of the region’s climate best fits the zone of heavy rainfall and even within this, is upset by the period of pronounced dryness as in the plain sections between the months of December and February. Variation and distribution of weather elements are affected by micro topographical differentiation and other local characteristics. These have brought striking between the windward and leeward sides. These elements together constituted the basis of distinct regional pattern of climate for the area as a whole. The North East India has a sub-tropical climate with only the higher elevation in Arunachal Pra