Forest or Farm The Politics of Poverty and Land Hunger in Nepal

This book proposes that the historical unequal distribution of cultivated land across tenure classes--and in particular the extremely small land units combined with the declining yields and population growth--has produced a gradual process of landlessness in Nepal. One result has been the high level of migration and spontaneous land settlement in forest areas in the Nepal Tarai, where prospects for land settlement are still substantial. The work demonstrates how recent state policies emphasizing forest protection seal off this "last" agricultural frontier and subject landless migrants to official intimidation, frequently accompanied by the destruction of their homes and crops and eviction from their settlements.