TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE LAND-USE IN THE HILLS OF CENTRAL HIMALAYA, INDIA

Over-population in relation to poor land productivity and cultivation in less fertile lands is resulting in land degradation and deforestati on in UP hills. Growing demand of more food production and increasing need for more cash in hand have forced the hill people to cultivate al l kinds of land, resulting in the denudation of land resources and soi l erosion. These changes resulted in out migration of the area's human resource. A new management system for the revival of natural rt:sourc es and the sustainable utilization of the area's human population and livestock has been proposed, involving active local participation in o rder to change the existing land-use to a system based on the soil fer tility scale.