Influences of economy and culture in development among mountain tribes of Indian Central Himalaya

The Indian republic contains a large number of tribal communities with vari ed cultures. Efforts to develop these communities by the government of Indi a and the provincial governments continue to be important in the post-indep endence planning era, and perceptible development has occurred in the socio -economic and demographic areas. However, expected goals have not been achi eved and differing socioeconomic and demographic developments are still fou nd in tribal communities, even within the same ecosystem. In this paper, an effort is made to characterize the differential trends of socioeconomic an d demographic development among two mountain tribes - the Jaunsaries and th e Bhotias - inhabiting the Indian Central Himalayan region. With the except ion of altitudinal variation, the Central Himalayan region of India is gove rned by a set of more or less similar geophysical and environmental conditi ons. However, discernible differences in socio-economic and demographic dev elopments are found in these tribal communities, and are affected by the ec onomy and culture of the tribal communities. The findings suggest that econ omic and cultural advantages and limitations should be appropriately integr ated in planning to make development efforts more meaningful and sustainabl e.