Each family gets 1 ha land; Rs 87 a day as wages for 7 years Septuagenarian Kripasadhan Chakma, a landless tribal living in remote Tabidapara of Tripura's south district, is not a worried man today as he is now earning a living from his own rubber garden with the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council coming to his aid. Tabidapara is a picturesque tribal hamlet on a hill surrounded by forests, hit by acute food-crisis and no jobs. "I only had a hut on khas (government land) land to live on and sometimes worked in other people's fields. We faced poverty and food scarcity every day. But those days are gone with work available in rubber gardens," Kripasadhan, a resident of a village under Karbuk block, said. "Now I work in my own garden and get wages from the tribal council," he said. MOTIVATION The TTAADC is motivatingthe hill people to settle down in rubber cultivation. The council has provided each family one hectare of land and paying wages at the rate of Rs 87 per day for developing the garden which would continue for seven years," said the Development Officer of the Council, Mr Ratnaji tDebbarma. Mr Debbarma said, seven years from now, the rubber trees would start producing latex which could be sold in markets at a high price and one hectare of land would earn about Rs 5,000 per month which would gradually rise to Rs 12,000 per month. After 25 years, the rubber trees, numbering about 400, couldbesoldatRs4 lakh, while with an investment of Rs 1,50,000, a new garden could be prepared. He said, 25 landless families were recently provided land with a guarantee of providing wages to encourage rubber cultivation in the TTAADCC which constituted two thirds of the state territory. The TTAADC is the home of tribals which constitute one third of the state's population. AFFORESTATION DRIVE The State Forest Department introduced rubber in Tripura as apart of afforestation in 1963. The first rehabilitation scheme for tribal shifting cultivators or 'jhumias' began in 1977 and now, over 12,000 families were resettled in different rubber plantation schemes. The Tripura Government has a target of rehabilitating over 50,000 landless people in rubber cultivation in the next -j-five years. According to the Rubber Board and National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, an area of 10,000 hectare is suitable for rubber plantations in Tripura. According to the Rubber Board Chairman, Mr Sajen Peter, North-East has the potential to transform itself into the world's largest natural rubber producing region in the country.