Full-length paper Asian Agri-History Vol. 16, No. 4, 2012 (371–392) 371 Probable Agricultural Biodiversity Heritage Sites in India: XIV. The Chotanagpur Plateau Region Anurudh K Singh Department of Genetics, MD University, Rohtak 124001, Haryana, India (email: [email protected]) Abstract The Chotanagpur Plateau in eastern India is a geohistorically unique region, being the oldest landmass on the earth. Agriculture has been practiced in this region from the ancient times, and appears to be an extension of the Ganga basin agriculture. Being the link between the Eastern Himalayas and the Satpura Hills with transitional ecology, the region has functioned as the passage for migration of fl ora and fauna from the Indo-Malayan region to peninsular India. For these reasons, it is very rich in fl oristic diversity and endemism of species. The region is dominated by tribal populations, including ancient tribes such as the Oraons, who are involved in diverse agricultural activities, starting from hunting-gathering of forest products, fi shing, and livestock rearing to settled agriculture. The region can be credited for evolving farming/production systems suited to different toposequences in slopy terrain, such as rice-based effi cient production systems, pulse-based mixed cropping systems, facilitating conservation of soil fertility and effi cient use of water and genetic diversity, such as early maturing and drought-resistant gora varieties in rice, the Chotanagpuri sheep breed in animals, and production of cottage products such as tasar silk (along with Chhattisgarh), etc. The present article discusses these contributions of the region, proposing it to be another national agricultural biodiversity heritage site based on the established indices. The Chotanagpur region is a plateau in rainfall than the adjacent ecoregions, which eastern India, covering much of the recently explains its drier vegetation. However, it created Jharkhand state, as well as the does include patches of moist deciduous bordering areas of Orissa, West Bengal, forests and swampy areas, thereby offering Bihar, and Chhattisgarh. The Gondwana diverse ecologies for agriculture. The substrates attest ancient origin to the region derives its name probably from plateau. Geohistorically, it was part of the the Nagavanshis, who ruled in this part Deccan Plate, which broke free from the of the country, and Chutia, a village on southern continent during the Cretaceous the outskirts of Ranchi, which has the period to embark upon a 50-million-year remains of an old fort belonging to the journey that was violently interrupted by the Nagavanshis. The name of the newly northern Eurasian continent. Climatically, created state of Jharkhand, which covers the the Chotanagpur region receives less major part of the plateau, is derived from 372 Agricultural biodiversity heritage sites the domination of scrub vegetation, locally proposed as another agricultural biodiversity called ‘jharies’. heritage site, based on the indices illustrated by Singh and Varaprasad (2008). Agriculture in the region is very old, as the earliest settlements of the Chalcolithic period extended from the Ganga basin to Location and extent the Chotanagpur Plateau. Limited numbers Ecologically, the Chotanagpur region lies of bronze and copper tools have been between the moist deciduous forests of recovered, refl ecting that agriculture was the Eastern Ghats and the Satpura Range practiced from the times of early human and the lower reaches of the Gangetic settlement. The economy of the region from Plains in eastern India, extending across this period onwards was exclusively based the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and West on agricultural components, such as stock Bengal. The Chotanagpur plateau is one raising, hunting, fi shing, etc., in addition to of the oldest landmasses on the earth. It conventional fi eld agriculture involving most is composed of Precambrian rocks that of the population. On the basis of latitude, the are more than 540 million years old. The plateau can be divided into three steps, each plateau in its entirety lies between the providing diverse ecology for adoption of basins of the Ganges and the Son Rivers different agroecosystems, thereby evolving to the north, and the Mahanadi River to both diverse production systems and the south. To the north of Chotanagpur important genetic diversity in the important lie the Rajmahal Hills, which are very commodity crop species cultivated in sloping important on account of their fossiliferous terrain; for example, early maturing and deposits (containing knowledge about the drought-resistant gora rice varieties, breeds such as the Chotanagpuri sheep, and the richness of fl oristic diversity, phylogeny use of local biodiversity in cottage products and plant evolution). To its west lie the such as tasar silk and lakh (lac). Thus, the highlands of Chhattisgarh and the districts region being the oldest landmass on the earth of Uttar Pradesh. Biogeographically, with geohistorical uniqueness, rich fl oristic the Chotanagpur plateau has a special diversity containing components of both signifi cance, as it forms the northern limit the northern and the southern hemispheres, of Peninsular India that lies within the practice of agriculture from the ancient Paleotropic region. Rodgers and Panwar times involving majority of the people, (1988), in their biogeographic classifi cation signifi cant contributions in the development of farming systems, practices and products such as various mixed and intercropping The Chotanagpur region is a plateau systems and evolving valuable genetic in eastern India, covering much of the diversity in component crops facilitating recently created Jharkhand state, as subsistence agriculture, and natural resources well as the bordering areas of Orissa, management under the fragmented sloping West Bengal, Bihar, and Chhattisgarh. landscape, the Chotanagpur plateau is being Asian Agri-History Vol. 16, No. 4, 2012 373 of India, recognized this plateau as part of Landscape province 6B (Deccan peninsula). The region has undulating topography Thus, the Chotanagpur region constitutes the presenting a highly dissected landscape of southern and eastern plateau of Jharkhand small hillocks and mounds. The dominant and contiguous districts in Orissa and West landscape in the area is represented by Bengal. Administratively, it comprises all moderate to gentle slopes with numerous the southern districts of Jharkhand, districts streams dissecting the uplands into a of Purulia and part of Bankura and western peneplain (an area reduced almost to Medinapur district of West Bengal, and a plain by erosion) with isolated hills the Mayurbhanj and Sundargarh districts (Fig. 2). On the basis of altitude, the plateau of Orissa. The other districts of the region is divided into three steps – the highest include Singhbhum, Gumla, Ranchi, step is in the western part of the plateau, Lohardaga, Palamu, and Hazaribagh, and called pats (900–1,100 m); the next part Santhal Pargana of Jharkhand (Fig. 1). contains larger portions of the old Ranchi Figure 1. Location and extent of the Chotanagpur Plateau (dark solid line in Jharkhand, and dotted line in Orissa and West Bengal). 374 Agricultural biodiversity heritage sites River trough (narrow channel). The western portion of the Hazaribagh plateau constitutes a broad watershed between the Damodar drainage on the south and the Lilajan and Mohana rivers on the north. The Damodar basin forms a trough between the Ranchi and Hazaribagh plateaus resulting from enormous fractures at their present edges, which caused the land between to sink to a great depth, and incidentally preserved from denudation, the Karanpura, Ramgarh Figure 2. The exotic landscape of the Chotanagpur plateau (Source: soumya9. and Bokaro coalfi elds. Further, to the east, blogspot.com). the Damodar River passes tamely into the Manbhum sector, the lowest step of the Chotanagpur plateau (Purulia). In the and Hazaribagh districts and some parts of west, the Palamu division generally lies at old Palamu district (600 m); and the lowest a lower height than surrounding areas. On step covering districts of old Manbhum the east, the Ranchi plateau intrudes and (Purulia) and Singhbhum with an average the southern part of the division merges height of 300 m. with the pat region. Also, on the west are The pat region is also referred to as the the Surguja highlands of Chhattisgarh and Western Ranchi Plateau, and is believed Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. The to be composed of Deccan lava. The next Lodh Falls drop from a height of 140 m of part of the Ranchi plateau gradually slopes these hills, making it the highest waterfall down towards the southeast into the hilly on the Chotanagpur Plateau. The Netarhat and undulating region of Singhbhum and and Pakripat plateaus are physiographically is highly dissected. The Damodar River part of the pat region. Therefore, in the originates from here and fl ows through a lowest step of the Chotanagpur Plateau, the rift valley. There are many waterfalls on the edges of the Ranchi plateau, where rivers coming over the plateau surface, form Agriculture in the region is very waterfalls when they descend through the old, as the earliest settlements of the precipitous escarpments of the plateau, and Chalcolithic period extended from enter the area of signifi cantly lower height. the Ganga basin to the Chotanagpur The Hazaribagh plateau is often subdivided Plateau. Limited numbers of bronze into two parts – the higher plateau and the