Indigenous Technical Knowledge and Resource Utilization of Lisusc
This Paper on Indigenous Technical Knowledge and Resource Utilization of Lisus in South eastern Arunachal Pradesh, describes the Lisus as a community who spend most of their time in the forests where they practice jhum cultivation and hunt wild animals. The hilly terrain and inaccessibility have forced them to innovate things to save time and energy. Through time, the Lisu people have perfected the technique of grafting horticultural plants. By applying this knowledge they are able to harvest fruits of their choice in a short duration of time, eg. Diospyros kaki (Thaj), a fruit tree commonly grown by the Lisus. Fruiting is made only when it is grafted with a specific wild plant (Slani in Lisu), which is abundant in the jhum fallows. Different horticultural fruits like thaj, orange, pineapple, guava are also cultivated permanently in the abandoned jhum lands which helps rehabilitate fallow agricultural lands. Thus with indigenous knowledge systems Lisus have been able to ensure efficient natural resource utilization.