Depletion of Forest and its impact on rural house pattern: A study on few forest villages of Assam-Nagaland border region

Abstract

World Wildlife Fund (WFF) used the word “depletion” or “deforestation” to describe the destruction of forest ecosystems to facilitate human activities, primarily emphasizing the total loss of native biodiversity and ecosystem capacity. IPCC & UNFCC defines it as the direct human-induced conversion of forested land to non-forested land. Forest depletion has a long-term impact on environment, livelihood and day to activities of rural mass. Further it adversely effects the whole ecosystem.
House exposes traditional attitudes representing their response to factors - such as ecological, economic and cultural. The dwelling thus, house type reflects the interrelationship between man and his immediate environment and obviously it tells of man’s struggle for shelter through time and space. A house or a dwelling in the traditional society is a manifestation of the intimate relation between man and his immediate environment. A house, in true sense, is an important ingredient of a society that disposes the changing interactions those continued in an area between human activity and environmental set up.
The changing forest cover scenario with the time passes imposed pressure on the dwellers to look for alternatives other than forest as the source of housing material. The Assam-Nagaland border region, a tribal dominated area witnessed a considerable change in the house pattern under compulsion of changing forest cover in the area. Presence of plenty of forest resources not only provided the materials for the construction of houses but also accommodated the tribal livelihood practices with all sorts of comfort. The onset of colonial rule in 1826 formulated a series of forest rules, regulations and act to establish their suzerainty over vast forest resources to extract revenue as much as possible. The post independent government also over ruled any significant change in the forest policies and put interest to generate more revenue at the cost of forest destruction. It, in consequence, brought a sea change in the house pattern of the forest dwellers tribe living in the forested Assam-Nagaland border region. The primary attempt of this paper is to examine the changing house pattern of the villages of Assam-Nagaland border region.

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